THE  LIFE 

OF 


HORACE  BINNEY 


THE  LIFE 

OF 


HORACE  BINNEY 


WITH  SELECTIONS  FROM   HIS  LETTERS 


BY 

CHARLES  CHAUNCEY  BINNEY 


PHILADELPHIA  AND  LONDON 

J,  B.   LIPPINCOTT    COMPANY 

1903 


COPYRIGHT,    1903 
BY  CHARLES  CHAUNCEY  BINNEY 

Published  November,  l<pOJ 


Printed  by  J.  B.  Lippincott  Company,  Philadelphia,  U.  S.  A. 


PREFACE 


IT  may  have  caused  some  surprise  that  no  complete  memoir 
of  Horace  Binney  was  published  shortly  after  his  death, 
and  before  so  many  of  those  to  whom  such  a  book  would 
have  had  a  special  interest,  on  account  of  their  personal  ac 
quaintance  with  him,  had  themselves  passed  away.  One  cause 
of  the  delay  was  undoubtedly  his  own  aversion  to  the  idea  of 
becoming  the  subject  of  a  biography,  coupled  with  the  further 
fact  that,  owing  to  his  fixed  habit  of  destroying,  from  time 
to  time,  all  the  letters  which  he  received,  the  material  for  a 
complete  memoir  was  not  in  possession  of  his  descendants  at 
his  death.  Had  his  oldest  son  survived  him,  this  lack  could, 
and  probably  would,  have  been  made  up  for  by  personal 
knowledge,  but  it  was  not  known  until  a  few  years  ago  that 
many  of  Mr.  Binney's  letters  had  been  preserved  by  the 
families  of  those  who  had  received  them.  This  discovery 
made  it  possible  to  prepare  a  fairly  connected  account  of  his 
whole  life,  but,  owing  to  lapse  of  time,  it  has  been  left  to 
one  whose  personal  knowledge  is  only  a  memory  of  boyhood 
to  attempt  what  could  have  been  much  better  done  by  those 
of  a  generation  ago. 

In  spite  of  this  long  delay,  it  is  believed  that  even  now 
a  record  of  Mr.  Binney's  life  and  opinions  may  prove  inter 
esting  not  merely  to  lawyers,  or  even  to  Philadelphians,  but 
to  all  Americans  who  believe  in  high  ideals  of  character  and 
citizenship.  Apart  from  his  eminence  as  a  lawyer,  he  un 
doubtedly  held  for  the  last  fifty  years  of  his  life  (from  1825 
to  1875)  an  exceptionally  high  place  in  public  esteem,  and 


PREFACE 

wielded  a  remarkable  influence.  Though  in  public  office  for 
only  a  very  short  time,  he  was,  in  a  very  real  sense,  a  public 
man,  a  recognized  leader  in  his  community.  A  keen  observer 
of  public  affairs,  and  personally  acquainted  with  many  promi 
nent  men,  his  long  life  enabled  him  to  understand,  more 
clearly  than  younger  men  could  do,  the  conditions  which  led 
up  to  the  events  of  the  Civil  War  period,  the  period  when 
most  of  the  letters  in  this  volume  were  written. 

The  work  of  preparing  the  present  volume  has  been 
mainly  that  of  selection  and  compilation,  in  the  hope  of  pre 
senting,  as  far  as  possible,  an  autobiography.  Fortunately 
a  partial  autobiography  existed,  written  for  Mr.  Binney's 
children,  and  from  this  all  the  quoted  extracts  are  taken, 
other  than  those  which  are  specifically  referred  to  as  taken 
from  speeches,  letters,  his  European  journal,  or  other 
writings.  In  making  selections  from  the  available  material, 
references  to  strictly  private  and  family  matters  have  gen 
erally  been  excluded,  except  in  the  earlier  chapters,  where 
they  were  inseparately  connected  with  the  gradual  develop 
ment  of  his  character.  It  is  almost  wholly  as  a  lawyer  and  a 
citizen  that  he  is  shown  here.  Of  his  family  life  it  is  fitting 
to  say  that  it  was  that  of  a  wise,  affectionate,  and  conscien 
tious  man,  possessing  a  very  decided  character,  but  remark 
ably  free  from  eccentricities.  To  describe  it  would  be  to 
admit  the  public  into  confidences  to  which  he  would  under 
no  consideration  have  admitted  them  himself. 

In  referring  to  Mr.  Binney's  opinions  upon  political  and 
social  matters,  the  effort  has  been  to  state  them  in  his  own 
words  as  far  as  possible,  without  undertaking  either  to 
champion  them  or  to  explain  them  away.  If  he  was  slow 
to  change  his  views,  he  was  at  least  not  hasty  in  forming 
them,  and  while  some  of  them  may  not  command  general 
assent,  they  were  always  such  as  no  man  need  be  ashamed 


VI 


PREFACE 

to  hold.  He  loved  his  country,  and  wished  to  see  its  govern 
ment  the  best  that  human  intelligence  and  virtue  could  pro 
duce.  That  his  ideals  were  not  attained,  and  apparently 
never  would  be,  was  to  him  a  constant  source  of  regret,  but 
he  never  made  it  an  excuse  for  any  failure  to  perform  the 
full  measure  of  his  duty  as  a  citizen. 

The  problems  which  now  confront  the  American  people 
are  some  of  them  the  same  as  those  of  Mr.  Binney's  time 
(many  parts  of  his  anti-protection  memorial  of  1824,  for 
instance,  might  have  been  written  to-day),  while  others  are 
due  to  developments  then  scarcely  contemplated;  but  in  the 
case  of  all  it  is  probable  that  the  best  solutions  will  be  found 
to  be  those  which  accord  with  the  fundamental  principles 
upon  which  the  government  of  this  country  was  originally 
based.  Those  principles  are  perhaps  more  closely  studied 
to-day,  even  by  men  who  differ  widely  in  the  application  of 
them,  than  at  any  time  since  the  Civil  War.  To  see  how 
those  principles  shaped  themselves  in  the  mind  of  a  man  born 
while  the  cause  of  American  Independence  was  still  trem 
bling  in  the  balance  may,  therefore,  be  a  matter  of  more  than 
trivial  interest;  and  if  anything  contained  in  this  memoir 
prove  an  aid  to  the  proper  carrying  out  of  those  principles, 
or  an  incentive  to  their  further  study,  its  publication  will 
have  been  amply  justified. 

PHILADELPHIA,  July,  1903. 


vii 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER    I 
BIRTH  AND  CHILDHOOD  (1780-1793)  ...........................        1 


CHAPTER    II 
LIFE  AT  COLLEGE  AND  AS  A  LAW  STUDENT  (1793-1800)  ............     22 

CHAPTER    III 
FIRST  YEARS  AT  THE  BAR  —  MARRIAGE  (1800-1807)  ...............      38 

CHAPTER    IV 
ACTIVE  PROFESSIONAL  LIFE  (1807-1815)  .......................     57 

CHAPTER    V 

ACTIVE  PROFESSIONAL  LIFE  (CONTINUED)  —  ELECTION  TO  CONGRESS 

(1815-1833)    ..........................................      70 

CHAPTER    VI 
SERVICE  IN  CONGRESS  —  EULOGY  ON  MARSHALL  (1833-1836)  ........    103 

CHAPTER    VII 
EUROPEAN  TOUR  (1836-1837)  ................................    136 

CHAPTER    VIII 

EUROPEAN  TOUR  (CONTINUED)  (1836-1837)  ....................    165 

ix 


THE   LIFE 

or 

HORACE    BINNEY 

¥¥¥ 

I 

BIRTH   AND    CHILDHOOD 
1780-1793 

OF  the  paternal  ancestry  of  Horace  Binney  nothing 
definite  is  known  beyond  the  fourth  preceding 
generation.  There  is  a  family  of  the  name  in  Not 
tinghamshire,  tracing  its  descent  from  the  Binnoch,  "  a  stout 
carle  and  a  sture,  and  off  himself  dour  and  hardy,"  who,  by 
a  clever  stratagem,  seized  Linlithgow  Castle  for  Robert 
Bruce  in  1313,  and  it  has  long  been  reported  in  this  family 
that  a  member  of  it  went  to  America  in  the  seventeenth 
century.  He  may  have  been  the  John  Binney,  of  Hull, 
Massachusetts,  whose  son  John  was  born  May  31,  1679,  but 
this  birth  is  the  earliest  record  on  which  reliance  can  be  placed. 
Another  son,  Thomas,  born  in  1687,  was  the  father  of  Jona 
than  Binney,  born  in  1725,  who  removed  to  Halifax,  Nova 
Scotia,  and  from  whom  the  late  Bishop  Hibbert  Binney,  of 
Nova  Scotia,  was  descended. 

The  second  John  Binney,  a  deacon  of  the  church  at  Hull, 
had  nine  children,  the  eighth  of  whom  was  Barnabas,  born 
March  22,  1723.  He  was  a  sea  captain,  and  during  a  part 
of  his  life  a  planter  in  Demerara.  He  married  Avis  Ings, 
and  their  son  Barnabas,  the  father  of  Horace  Binney,  was 


HORACE    BINNEY  [Mi.  1 

born  in  Boston  in  1751.  He  "  was  educated  at  the  College 
in  Providence  now  called  Brown  University,  and  received 
his  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts  in  September,  1774.  He 
held  the  first  grade  in  his  class,  and  pronounced  the  vale 
dictory  oration  at  the  Commencement.  It  was  in  defence 
of  the  right  of  private  judgement  in  matters  of  religion. 
The  discourse  shows  great  freedom  as  well  as  fearlessness 
of  thought,  and  proceeded  from  a  mind  that  was  little  dis 
posed  to  submit  to  any  human  authority  that  had  not  the 
sanction  of  reason." 

After  graduation,  Barnabas  Binney  went  to  Philadel 
phia  to  study  medicine,  being  under  the  instruction,  in  part, 
at  least,  of  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush.  On  May  25,  1777,  he  was 
married  to  Mary,  daughter  of  Henry  Woodrow,  a  lumber 
merchant,  residing  in  the  Northern  Liberties.  Before  that 
date,  probably,  Dr.  Binney  entered  the  American  army  as 
a  Hospital  Surgeon,  in  which  career  he  gained  a  high  repu 
tation  for  skill  in  the  treatment  of  wounds.  He  was  with 
the  troops  at  Valley  Forge  in  the  trying  winter  of  1777-78, 
and  was  much  attached  to  Washington.  It  was  in  that  same 
winter,  and  on  the  anniversary  of  Washington's  birth,  that 
Dr.  Binney's  first  child,  Susan,  afterwards  married  to  John 
Bradford  Wallace,  was  born. 

The  second  child,  Horace,  the  subject  of  this  memoir, 
was  born  January  4, 1780,  "  in  a  house  belonging  to  Thomas 
Williams,  in  the  Northern  Liberties,  Philadelphia."  *  The 
city  and  adjoining  districts  had  been  evacuated  by  the  British 
but  a  little  over  eighteen  months  before;  New  York  and  a 
considerable  portion  of  the  South  were  still  occupied  by  them; 
and  the  prospect  of  the  successful  establishment  of  American 
independence  was  far  from  being  assured.  In  fact,  this  par- 


1  So  stated  by  Dr.  Barnabas  Binney  in  his  entry  of  the  birth. 

2 


1780]  BIRTH   AND    CHILDHOOD 

ticular  year,  1780,  was  one  which  brought  many  disasters  to 
the  American  cause,  and  seriously  threatened  its  further 
progress.  While  neither  Dr.  Binney  nor  his  wife  were 
people  who  would  easily  lose  faith  in  the  cause  to  which 
they  were  devoted,  it  may  well  be  that  at  times  they  realized 
the  possibility  that  the  infant  of  this  apparently  ill-starred 
year  might  grow  to  manhood  as  a  subject  of  King  George, 
and  bear  through  life  the  stigma  of  being  the  son  of  a  rebel. 
Less  than  two  years  after  his  birth,  however,  the  child's 
citizenship  was  settled  by  the  victory  at  Yorktown,2  and  the 
formal  cessation  of  hostilities  in  April,  1783,  permitted  his 
father  to  return  permanently  to  Philadelphia,  though  with 
a  constitution  seriously  impaired  by  hardship  in  the  field. 

The  history  of  Mr.  Binney's  boyhood  is  best  given  in  his 
own  words: 

"  At  the  close  of  the  war  my  father  moved  his  family  to 
a  house  on  the  south  side  of  Walnut,  the  second  house  east 
from  Second  Street.  On  September  20,  1838, 1  pointed  out 
the  site  of  the  house  to  my  wife  and  daughter  Esther,  the 
walls  having  just  been  taken  down,  to  be  rebuilt.  My  friend 
W.  Meredith  lived  in  it  for  many  years,  and  after  he  left  it 
was  occupied  by  the  Insurance  Company  of  North  America 
for  offices.  It  was  in  that  house  that  my  present  memory 
began  to  sprout.  All  previous  existence  is  a  blank  to  me; 
but  I  have  distinct  impressions  of  circumstances  occurring  in 
that  house  before  I  was  five  years  old,  and  I  think  before  I 
was  four.  I  recollect  well  the  death  of  my  brother  William, 

2  Mr.  Binney  had  "  a  very  strong  impression"  that  he  had  been  awakened  in 
the  night  by  the  watchman  calling,  "  Past  twelve  o'clock,  and  Cornwallis  is  taken," 
and  of  the  house  being  in  an  uproar  in  consequence.  That  the  noise  awakened 
him  is  very  probable,  but  it  is  more  likely  that  he  was  told  as  a  child  that  he  had 
been  waked  up  on  that  occasion,  than  that  he  actually  remembered  the  incident. 
Still,  his  memory  all  through  life  was  exceptionally  retentive.  (See  Gail  Hamil 
ton's  Life  in  Letters,  vol.  ii.  p.  708.) 

3 


HORACE    BINNEY  MT.  5 


who  died  there  in  March,  1784.  I  have  an  indistinct  recol 
lection  also  of  my  brother  Henry,  who  died  there  on  the  14th 
of  July,  1783.  On  the  4th  of  January,  1785,  the  day  I  was 
five  years  old,  my  mother  proposed  me  to  my  aunt  Susan, 
as  a  guard  to  wait  upon  her  home  at  night,  and  I  well  re 
member  my  elation  at  the  thought.  How  soon  does  self-love 
show  itself  in  a  child!" 

A  less  rigid  censor  might  have  ascribed  this  elation  to  the 
manliness  and  self-reliance  which  the  boy  undoubtedly  de 
veloped  at  a  very  early  age.  Such  development  naturally 
resulted  from  the  wise  union  of  love  and  firmness  which  his 
parents,  and  especially  his  mother,  invariably  manifested 
towards  him.  Of  her  he  wrote  :  "  My  mother's  person  was 
tall  and  erect,  and  her  carriage  of  great  dignity.  The  only 
instrument  of  command  that  she  used  with  her  children  was 
her  eye.  I  do  not  recollect  to  have  ever  felt  the  weight  of 
her  hand,  or  the  reproof  of  her  tongue,  but  her  clear  blue 
eye,  the  sharpest  for  a  blue  eye  that  I  have  ever  seen,  and 
yet  the  gentlest  when  bestowing  caresses  or  approbation,  used 
to  rule  us  all,  and  myself  in  particular,  with  sovereign  sway. 
Upon  one  occasion  in  my  father's  lifetime,  as  he  was  about 
to  correct  me  for  some  fault,  my  mother  came  to  him  and 
asked  him  to  let  her  punish  me,  saying  she  was  sure  he  would 
not  punish  me  severely  enough.  He  accordingly  gave  me 
into  her  hands,  and  she  took  me  into  another  room,  where, 
instead  of  whipping  me,  she  soon  talked  me  into  more  tears 
and  sorrow  than  any  whipping  could  have  produced.  What 
my  offence  was  I  do  not  recollect;  nor  do  I  doubt  that  the 
scene  was  concerted  between  her  and  my  father,  whose  hand 
I  never  felt.  Her  influence  over  me  and  all  her  children  was 
unbounded.  Her  commendations  were  of  the  highest  value 
to  all  of  us;  and  I  saw  that  sharp,  speaking  eye  upon  me 
whenever  I  did  wrong." 


1785]  BIRTH   AND    CHILDHOOD 

The  mother's  health,  always  delicate,  probably  hindered 
somewhat  her  personal  watchfulness  over  her  children.  At 
all  events,  Horace  Binney,  as  a  lad,  met  with  more  than  even 
the  most  active  boy's  usual  share  of  bodily  mishaps,  which, 
however,  he  afterwards  looked  back  upon  as  not  unmixed 
evils. 

"  During  the  same  residence  [in  Walnut  Street]  I  had 
the  good  fortune  to  have  my  leg  broken  by  a  horse  and  gig, 
and  to  tumble  into  an  open  cellar  upon  a  pile  of  oyster  shells, 
one  of  which  left  a  scar  upon  my  arm  now  about  three  inches 
long.  This  latter  incident  occurred,  as  I  recollect,  from  a 
contest  between  my  sister  Susan  and  myself  for  one  section 
of  a  piece  of  gingerbread,  which  upon  a  division  I  had  re 
served  for  myself,  and  which  she  insisted  was  the  biggest 
half.  She  claimed  it  by  right  of  seniority,  and  it  may  be 
supposed  from  what  followed  that  I  did  not  think  the  reason 
a  sufficient  one.  I  well  recollect  that  as  soon  as  the  accident 
occurred  she  offered  me  peaceable  possession  of  both  pieces. 
I  call  these  occurrences  good  fortune,  for  they,  with  others 
occurring  before  I  was  thirteen,  seem  to  have  forearmed  by 
forewarning  me  against  all  personal  accidents  or  injuries 
after  that  time.  But  it  was  altogether  rather  sharp  teaching, 
for  a  broken  leg,  a  broken  arm,  two  broken  ribs,  cuts  innu 
merable,  being  once  hung  up  to  a  hook  in  the  shambles  of 
the  market-place,  and  once  suspended  between  two  posts  with 
my  head  in  the  gutter  and  my  heels  in  the  air,  were  more  than 
enough  to  instruct  a  duller  boy  than  I  was. 

"  I  ought  to  explain  so  strange  a  mishap  [as  that  of  the 
market-place].  When  a  part  of  the  Seneca  tribe  of  Indians 
visited  Philadelphia  in  1791  or  1792,  one  of  the  tribe,  Peter 
Olesiquett,  who  had  just  returned  from  France,  where  he 
had  been  educated  or  civilized  under  the  care  of  the  Marquis 
de  la  Fayette,  was  an  object  of  great  curiosity.  I  had  heard 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  6 

my  mother  speak  much  of  his  manners  and  appearance.  I 
happened  to  be  in  the  market-house  opposite  Grindstone 
Alley,  between  Second  and  Third  Streets,  when  the  Seneca 
Indians  were  passing  on  the  north  side  of  Market  Street,  and 
to  get  above  the  heads  of  the  crowd  I  mounted  upon  the 
railings  of  the  shambles  where  the  butchers  hung  their  meat. 
Upon  getting  down  I  was  held  fast  by  a  hook  which  entered 
near  my  right  knee,  and  was  lifted  off  by  a  bystander.  The 
scar  remains.  The  wound  gave  me  trouble  for  several 
weeks." 

While  the  family  lived  on  Walnut  Street,  the  boy  at 
tended  the  Quaker  Almshouse  school,  on  the  same  street, 
above  Third  Street.  About  1786  they  moved  to  a  house  on 
Arch  Street,  opposite  Christ  Church  burial-ground,  and  he 
went  to  a  school  behind  the  Presbyterian  church  at  the  north 
east  corner  of  Third  and  Arch  Streets,  and,  later  on  in  that 
year,  to  the  Grammar  School  of  the  University  of  Penn 
sylvania,  where  he  proved  himself  equal  to  the  requirements 
of  the  school-boys'  code,  as  the  following  shows : 

"  My  impression  is  that  the  City  of  Brotherly  Love  is 
less  pugnacious  than  when  I  was  a  boy.  A  fight  between 
two  or  more  of  the  boys  of  this  school,  when  I  went  to  it, 
was  a  daily  recreation  to  the  others.  Christ  Church  burial- 
ground,  and  the  Friends'  burial-ground  on  the  east  side  of 
Fourth  Street,  then  great  fields  of  the  dead,  were  the  scene 
of  the  tournament;  the  walls  being  then  of  a  height  which 
boys  could  scale.  A  chip  was  placed  on  my  head,  youngling 
as  I  was,  the  first  day  I  went  to  this  school,  and  a  very  good 
boy  named  Andrew  Hazlehurst,  whom  I  afterwards  liked 
very  much,  was  told  by  one  of  the  bigger  boys  that  he  didn't 
dare  knock  it  off.  Andrew's  courage,  however,  was  up  to 
the  attempt,  and  I  could  not  with  safety  have  ventured  not 
to  resent  the  aggression.  It  was  a  drawn  battle,  and  my  first 


1786]  BIRTH   AND    CHILDHOOD 

bloody  nose  in  fight.  We  both  were  applauded  and  led  quiet 
lives  afterwards  while  we  continued  at  school. 

"  The  practice  may  have  been  borrowed  from  the  mother 
country,  from  which  we  formerly  borrowed  more  in  school 
practices  than  we  now  do,  or  it  may  have  been  a  remnant 
of  the  Revolutionary  War.  It  never  produced  ill-will,  nor 
was  it  the  result  of  it.  The  boys  liked  each  other  as  well  as 
before,  and  there  was  no  shame  in  defeat,  if  the  vanquished 
party  showed  game,  or  bottom,  as  it  was  called." 

At  the  same  school  the  boy  received  his  first  abiding  ex 
perience  of  the  importance  of  truth,  an  experience  which  he 
held  to  have  been  of  lasting  service. 

*  There  was  in  the  school  a  boy  named  Jack  Robinson, 
a  red-headed  urchin,  a  few  years  older  than  myself,  and 
who  had  acquired  some  influence  over  me,  I  know  not  what 
nor  how.  I  wished  to  be  agreeable  to  him,  and  hoping  that 
he  would  refuse  so  inconvenient  a  gift  as  a  turtle,  I  one  day 
offered  him  one  that  I  had — not.  To  my  great  horror,  the 
present  delighted  him.  He  said  he  would  accept  it  with 
pleasure,  and  would  go  home  with  me  after  school  and  get 
it.  This  I  desired  to  prevent,  and  told  him  the  turtle  was 
in  a  rain-water  cask,  and  could  not  be  got  at  conveniently 
until  the  water  was  out.  Robinson  said,  '  Never  mind  that, 
I'll  get  him  out,  and  I'll  go  home  with  you  after  school.'  My 
position  was  distressing,  and  nothing  remained  for  me  after 
school  but  to  dodge  Robinson,  and  get  home  as  quietly  as  I 
could.  I  succeeded  in  this  so  well  that  the  thing  went  out 
of  my  mind,  and  at  the  usual  time  I  sat  down  to  my  dinner, 
in  a  back  parlour  facing  the  window  that  looked  into  the 
yard,  with  as  little  care  and  as  much  appetite  as  usual.  But 
I  had  not  taken  half  a  dozen  swallows  before  a  shadow  called 
my  eye  to  the  window,  and  I  saw  Robinson's  red  head  just 
rising  above  the  partition  fence,  and  as  he  held  himself  up 


HORACE    BINNEY  [Mv.S 

by  his  hands  on  the  fence,  his  eyes  straining  to  catch  a  glimpse 
of  the  rain-water  cask.  Until  he  let  go  his  hold,  and  .dropped 
out  of  sight,  I  did  not  draw  a  long  breath,  nor  did  I  resume 
my  dinner  with  much  appetite.  The  question  then  was  how 
to  meet  him  in  the  afternoon,  and  what  to  say ;  and  I  thought 
over  half  a  dozen  lies,  and  rejected  them  all,  as  they  called 
for  a  further  lie  at  some  other  time  to  end  the  matter.  I 
finally  determined  to  tell  him,  when  he  should  ask  me,  that 
somebody  had  stolen  the  turtle,  and  that  I  would  try  to  get 
him  another;  and  so  it  turned  out.  But  I  told  him  so  with 
shame,  and  I  may  believe  with  contrition;  for  I  did  not  for 
a  long  time  cease  to  think  with  shame  of  this  departure  from 
the  truth,  which  my  own  foolish  promise  kept  alive  in  my 
mind.  If  the  lie,  which,  like  most  of  the  lies  of  children,  was 
a  lie  of  weakness  only,  had  not  given  me  so  much  pain,  it 
might  have  led  to  others  of  a  worse  description." 

Although  Dr.  Binney's  ancestors  had  belonged  to  the 
Congregationalist  body,  the  established  church  of  Massa 
chusetts,  some  of  the  family,  including  himself  apparently, 
had  become  Baptists.  As  he  was  married  by  the  pastor  of 
the  First  Baptist  Church,  his  wife  may  have  been  connected, 
at  least  nominally,  with  the  same  religious  body.  In  Phila 
delphia,  however,  his  intimacy  with  Dr.  Magaw,  the  rector 
of  St.  Paul's,  led  him  to  send  his  children  regularly  to  that 
church,  so  that  Horace  Binney's  religious  associations  were 
with  the  Episcopal  Church  from  the  first,  though  he  did  not 
formally  join  it  until  later.  Of  his  attendance  at  St.  Paul's 
he  wrote: 

"  My  mother's  health  rarely  permitted  her  to  attend 
church,  and  my  father's  practice  perhaps  never.  I  am  de 
voutly  thankful  to  him  for  having  thus  selected  for  me  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  of  which  I  am  now  a  member, 
with  the  fullest  approbation  of  my  judgement  in  all  respects. 


1788]  BIRTH   AND    CHILDHOOD 

Dr.  Magaw  was  one  of  my  father's  particular  friends,  and 
our  families  were  intimate.  I  cannot  say  that  my  sister  and 
myself  were  not  sufficiently  sensible  to  some  of  the  peculi 
arities  of  his  manner  in  the  pulpit,  as  we  certainly  were  to 
the  more  striking  peculiarities  of  Dr.  Pilmore,  who  also 
preached  at  St.  Paul's,  and  was  in  some  way  connected  with 
that  church ;  but  if  Mr.  Harris,  the  clerk,  had  sometimes  to 
cut  his  eye  at  us,  he  was  never  obliged  to  go  to  extremities. 
We  were,  however,  but  goers  to  the  church,  and  not  members, 
as  neither  of  us  had  been  baptized.  I  have  supposed  that  this 
was  attributable  to  the  influence  of  Baptist  opinions  or  usages 
upon  my  mother." 

A  boy  of  active  mind,  the  son  of  an  officer  of  the  War  of 
Independence,  it  is  to  be  supposed  that  even  before  the  close 
of  what  the  late  John  Fiske  happily  styled  "  the  critical 
period  of  American  history"  young  Horace  Binney  heard 
enough  conversation  on  public  affairs  to  realize  in  some 
measure  that  the  States,  too  loosely  united  by  the  Confed 
eration,  were,  as  he  afterwards  expressed  it,  "  the  hope  of 
their  enemies,  the  fear  of  their  friends,"  and  destined,  unless 
the  disintegrating  tendencies  were  speedily  arrested,  to  be 
come  "  the  shame  of  the  world."  At  all  events,  when  only 
eight  and  a  half  years  old,  he  was  privileged  to  take  part  in 
a  public  demonstration  to  hail  the  dawn  of  a  better  day,  for 
on  July  4,  1788,  he  walked  with  the  other  Grammar  School 
boys  in  the  Federal  procession,  to  celebrate  the  adoption  of 
the  Constitution  by  ten  States,  and  the  consequent  assurance 
of  its  establishment.  That  this  event  made  a  deep  impression 
on  his  mind  may  well  be  believed,  including,  in  all  probability, 
a  boy's  supreme  contempt  for  the  backwardness  of  the  three 
States — New  York,  North  Carolina,  and  Rhode  Island— 
which  still  held  aloof  from  the  new  bonds  of  union.  Cer 
tain  it  is  that  throughout  his  life  the  Constitution  had  no 

9 


HORACE   BINNEY  [MT.  8 

more  devoted  adherent,  and  that  he  always  looked  back  with 
sincere  gratification  to  his  youthful  share  in  the  public  re 
joicings  over  its  adoption.  Seventy-five  years  later,  shortly 
before  the  Rebellion  reached  its  high-water  mark,  he  wrote: 
"  In  national  politics  I  have  been  a  Federalist,  and  nothing 
else,  since  I  was  an  adult;  and  have  some  claims  to  it  from 
childhood,  having,  as  a  member  of  the  University  grammar 
school,  walked  with  my  class  in  the  Federal  procession  on 
the  4th  of  July,  1788,  on  the  ratification  of  the  Constitution 
by  the  required  number  of  States.  '  What  is  bred  in  the 
bone' — you  know  the  proverb.  I  am  perhaps  the  survivor 
of  the  whole  of  that  procession,  and,  dead  or  alive,  I  shall 
never  meet  any  one  of  that  body  who  shall  be  able  to  reproach 
me  with  deserting  the  Union,  from  fear,  favour,  or  affection, 
or  from  any  passion,  prejudice,  or  hope."  3 

Early  in  1787  Dr.  Binney  undertook  to  explore  some 
wild  lands  which  he  had  recently  taken  up  in  Luzerne  County, 
and  the  exposure  incident  to  this  told  seriously  on  his  weak 
ened  constitution.  Accompanied  by  his  wife,  he  sought 
Berkeley  Springs,  in  Virginia,  in  the  hope  of  improvement, 
but  it  was  too  late,  and  on  the  return  he  died  at  Chambers- 
burg,  on  June  21, 1787.  This  early  loss  of  a  father's  care  led 
to  a  change  in  the  boy's  life.  "  After  my  father's  death,"  he 
wrote,  "  my  mother,  in  the  spring 4  of  1788,  to  remove  me 
from  the  bad  company  and  temptations  of  the  city,  sent  me 
to  school  at  Bordentown,  where  I  lived  in  the  family  of  the 
principal,  Burgess  Allison,  until  the  month  of  December, 
1791.  My  time  passed  pleasantly  enough  in  this  place,  and 
not  altogether  unprofitably.  We  had  two  vacations,  in  fall 
and  spring,  when  I  returned  home  for  a  month.  At  the  close 

3  Letter  to  Dr.  Francis  Lieber,  April  13,  1863. 
4 Apparently  this  should  read  "summer,"  as  it  must  have  been  after  July 
4,  1788. 

10 


1788]  BIRTH    AND    CHILDHOOD 

of  each  term  the  boys  of  the  school  presented  a  drama  of 
some  kind, — tragedy,  comedy,  or  farce, — in  which,  from  my 
fair  complexion  and  light  hair,  I  had  always  the  part  of  a 
female  cast  to  me.  Mr.  Allison  had  a  taste  for  such  repre 
sentations,  and  was  quite  an  artist  in  arranging  the  scenery 
and  dresses.  Our  studies  during  the  term  were  prosecuted 
very  fairly,  and  we  had  the  Delaware  and  a  beautiful  country 
for  the  exercises  necessary  to  health.  .  .  . 

"  On  my  first  passage  to  [Bordentown]  in  the  packet,  I 
embarked  at  Philadelphia  on  a  Thursday  morning,  and  was 
presented  by  the  captain  to  Mr.  Allison  on  Saturday  even 
ing.  There  was  a  high  and  rapid  fresh  in  the  river,  and  a 
heavy  fog  and  little  wind.  I  now  often  see  at  low  water  a 
collection  of  rocks,  called  the  Hen  and  Chickens,  upon  which 
our  sloop  remained,  with  great  gravity,  some  portion  of  these 
seventy-two  hours.  .  .  . 

"  One  or  two  of  my  boy's  tricks  at  school  I  will  set  down, 
that  my  children  may  the  better  know  the  manner  of  person 
I  was.  There  was  a  boy  at  school  from  the  eastern  shore  of 
Maryland,  of  whose  standing  with  the  principal,  which  we 
thought  had  no  very  good  ground,  some  of  us  were  a  little 
jealous.  He  used  to  keep  himself  clear  of  our  forays  among 
the  orchards  in  apple  time,  and  other  boys'  law,  and  as  we 
thought  curried  favour  on  that  and  other  accounts.  His 
word  was  taken  when  ours  was  not,  or  with  grains  of  allow 
ance,  and  we  owed  him  a  grudge  which  in  due  time  we  meant 
to  pay.  We  all  slept  in  a  large  dormitory,  with  our  trunks 
at  our  bed-heads,  and  Teackle's  was  a  large  one,  in  which  we 
knew  he  kept  many  little  comforts  that  he  did  not  share  with 
the  boys.  This  added  to  his  disfavour.  Upon  a  certain  holi 
day,  when  the  use  of  a  gun  was  not  prohibited  to  us,  we 
bagged  half  a  dozen  young  chickens  from  the  master's 

poultry-yard,    and    at    nightfall    put    them    quietly    into 

11 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Ex.  8-11 

Teackle's  trunk,  which  we  found  the  means  to  unlock. 
The  tidings  of  the  slaughter  soon  spread,  the  chickens  were 
traced  to  our  bedroom,  and  we  were  all  ordered  to  open  our 
trunks  for  examination.  Some  of  us  resisted,  and  said  the 
suspicion  was  an  affront,  which  made  the  master  all  the 
keener.  Teackle  offered  at  once  to  open  his,  and  to  him 
the  master  replied  that  it  was  quite  unnecessary,  for  nobody 
could  suspect  him,  but  the  other  boys  must  open.  He  had 
no  doubt  they  were  guilty,  from  their  unwillingness  to  let 
him  see.  We  began  thereupon  to  open  trunk  after  trunk, 
but  doggedly  and  unwillingly,  and  the  master  looked  blank 
enough  when  no  chickens  were  found.  In  the  end,  Teackle's 
trunk  alone  remained,  and  he  again  offered,  but  somehow  or 
other  not  quite  so  boldly  as  before,  and  the  master  then  said 
that  upon  the  whole  he  would  examine  Teackle's  trunk  also, 
to  show  his  impartiality.  When  the  chickens  were  all  found 
there  snug  enough,  under  Teackle's  clothes,  you  may  imagine 
his  countenance,  and  the  countenances  of  all  of  us.  He  was 
so  confounded  that  he  was  unable  to  assert  the  truth,  and  it 
was  not  until  the  scent  of  the  real  poachers  had  become  cold, 
that  Teackle  got  courage  enough  to  say,  and  to  stand  to  it, 
that  he  was  none  of  them.  I  think  that  after  this  we  were 
better  friends  with  him. 

"  Upon  another  occasion,  on  a  freezing  Saturday  after 
noon,  a  boy  named  Jim  Gillespie  and  myself  set  off  after 
dinner,  and  without  leave,  to  go  to  his  grandfather's,  Dr.  De 
Normandy,  at  Burlington.  I  think  we  rather  intended  to 
give  the  school  a  fright,  and  truly  we  did.  All  that  could 
be  reported  of  us  at  night  was  that  we  had  been  seen  going 
to  our  skating-ground,  on  a  creek  of  the  Delaware,  and  the 
consequence  was  that  the  country  was  scoured.  Just  as  we 
had  gone  to  bed  at  Dr.  De  Normandy's  after  our  ten  miles' 

walk  in  the  snow,  and  supper,  one  of  the  servants  stole  up 

12 


1788-91]      BIRTH    AND    CHILDHOOD 

and  whispered  that  Mr.  Jo  Reed  had  arrived  on  horseback. 
He  had  come  either  to  find  us  or  to  report  our  disappearance. 
As  we  were  not  required  to  get  up,  Gillespie  and  I  deter 
mined  not  to  be  carried  home  in  disgrace,  and  we  were  up 
accordingly  long  before  day,  and  off  again  for  Bordentown. 
When  about  two  miles  from  Bordentown  Mr.  Reed  overtook 
us,  and  with  a  hearty  laugh  at  our  manoeuvre  told  us  both  to 
get  up  behind  him,  which  our  fatigue  consented  to  in  spite 
of  our  shame ;  but  we  had  not  gone  a  quarter  of  a  mile  before 
the  horse  balled,  and  rolled  down  with  all  three  of  us  in  the 
snow.  We  then  declined  remounting,  and  Mr.  Reed  pushed 
on  without  us.  The  joke  of  the  fall  got  there  as  soon  as  he 
did,  and  although  all  were  at  the  door  to  receive  us,  instead 
of  being  flogged  as  we  ought  to  have  been,  either  the  laugh 
at  the  accident  or  Sunday  morning  saved  us  at  that  time,  and 
a  serious  admonition  from  Mr.  Allison  the  next  day  perhaps 
did  us  more  good  than  a  flogging." 

Another  incident,  to  which  Mr.  Binney  traced  his  rooted 
aversion  to  debt,  occurred  during  his  life  at  Bordentown. 

"  I  always  left  home  with  a  little  outfit  of  a  dollar  or  two, 
and  received  besides  a  weekly  allowance  of  pocket-money 
which  was  paid  to  me  by  the  master.  This  should  have 
sufficed,  but  I  wished  to  make  a  present  to  a  little  girl  to 
whom  I  had  taken  a  fancy,  and  I  directed  a  cabinet-maker 
in  the  town  to  make  a  small  mahogany  box  for  me,  for  which 
I  was  to  pay  a  dollar.  The  box  was  made  and  given  away, 
and  then  came  the  day  of  payment  without  the  money  to 
pay  for  it.  The  cabinet-maker  asked  for  it  once,  civilly 
enough,  and  then  rather  angrily,  and  at  last  I  got  the  horrors. 
His  shop  was  on  the  way  to  one  of  our  favourite  playgrounds, 
and  both  in  going  out  and  in  coming  in  I  had  to  make  a 
circuit  to  avoid  it.  Many  were  my  efforts  to  prevent  my 
companions  from  noticing  these  deviations,  but  I  always 

13 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Ex.  8-11 

made  them  with  the  fear  of  meeting  the  cabinet-maker  not 
withstanding.  If  I  saw  him  in  the  street,  I  felt  a  shivering; 
and  if  he  appeared  to  be  coming  towards  me,  my  hair  stood 
on  end.  I  used  to  think  the  constable  looked  queerly  at  me, 
and  more  than  once  I  thought  from  the  principal's  looks  or 
remarks  that  he  knew  it,  that  my  mother  would  know  it,  and 
that  all  would  be  over  with  me.  I  dreamt  of  the  box  nightly, 
and  thought  of  the  debt  all  the  day  long.  I  tried  to  accumu 
late  my  weekly  stipend  to  make  up  the  sum,  but  the  trial  was 
too  severe.  I  looked  forward  to  the  vacation  as  my  only 
rescue,  and  the  happiest  hour  of  my  life  was  when  I  paid 
the  debt  with  my  outfit.  It  is  from  such  occurrences  that  the 
character  in  after-life  is  formed  for  better  or  for  worse,5  and 
I  am  thankful  that  neither  this,  nor  any  of  my  boyish  errors, 
which  were  many,  had  the  effect  of  hardening  me.  The  love 
I  bore  to  my  mother,  the  earnest  desire  I  felt  to  have  her 
good  opinion,  and  the  keen  apprehension  of  her  displeasure 
were  my  security  against  flagrant  misconduct  under  the  many 
temptations  that  were  around  me." 

The  river  Delaware  was  the  scene  of  Fitch's  experi 
mental  steamboat  trips  in  1788,  one  of  which  Mr.  Binney 
saw  from  Bordentown.  "  She  had  come  from  Philadelphia, 
but  I  know  not  in  what  length  of  time;  and  after  leaving 
Crosswick's  Creek,  where  she  had  come  to  at  the  wharf,  de 
parted  for  Trenton;  but  I  heard  no  more  of  her  trip.  She 
had  three  paddles  at  the  stern,  which  were  moved  by  a  chain 
passing  from  the  neighbourhood  of  the  cylinder  near  the 
centre  of  the  boat.  My  recollection  is  that  the  movement  of 
the  paddles  did  not  show  much  force,  and  that  her  motion 
was  slow.  The  paddles  were  so  arranged  as  to  strike  the 

8 Writing  to  his  son,  in  1827,  Mr.  Binney  said,  "The  affair  of  the  dollar 
which  I  owed  a  cabinet-maker  when  I  was  eleven  years  old  has  been  worth  ten 
thousand  to  me." 

14 


1788-91]      BIRTH   AND    CHILDHOOD 

water  in  succession,  going  into  the  water  near  the  stern,  and 
pushing  from  it,  until  they  were  lifted  out  by  the  machinery 
to  return  and  renew  the  stroke.  I  think  she  required  some 
repairs  at  Bordentown  to  keep  her  a-going." 

In  December,  1791,  Mrs.  Binney  married  Dr.  Marshall 
Spring,  of  Watertown,  Massachusetts,  a  man  of  the  kind 
liest  nature,  who  at  once  assumed  a  father's  place  towards 
his  step-children.  Accordingly,  the  boy  returned  to  Phila 
delphia,  then  the  national  capital,  where  the  family  remained 
during  that  winter. 

"  My  mother's  residence  was  on  the  north  side  of  Market 
Street,  between  Fifth  and  Sixth,  opposite  the  mansion  of 
General  Washington,  and  next  to  the  house  of  General 
Hamilton,  then  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  At  that  time 
this  was  the  court  end  of  the  town.  There  was  no  shop  or 
warehouse  near  us,  and,  indeed,  few  buildings  of  any  kind  to 
the  west.  Mr.  Markoe's  house,  near  Tenth  Street,  was  in  the 
country.  My  position  at  my  mother's  door  enabled  me  par 
ticularly  to  observe  the  movements  about  the  President's.  I 
often  saw  this  renowned  man,  and  recollect  especially  his  fine 
figure  and  command  on  horseback,  an  exercise  which  he  fre 
quently  took.  Mrs.  Washington's  matronly  appearance  I 
also  recollect,  once  in  particular  as  she  came  across  the  street 
with  Mr.  Lear,  the  President's  secretary,  to  pay  my  mother 
a  morning  visit.  This  was  not  out  of  keeping  with  her 
general  manners,  which  were  not  stately;  but  there  was  at 
that  time  much  more  ceremony  and  state  in  the  community 
generally  than  at  present,  and  the  incident  alluded  to  prob 
ably  struck  me  and  fixed  my  attention.  The  prevailing  cere 
monies  at  that  time  were  the  remains  of  colonial  usage, 
adopted  from  the  mother  country.  General  Washington's 
coach  and  six  were  sometimes  got  up,  and  his  coach  and 
four  more  frequently.  Mr.  William  Hamilton's  post-chaise 

15 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  12 

('Billy  Hamilton's  poshay')  and  four,  the  boys  in  scarlet 
jackets  and  hunting  caps,  was  his  frequent  conveyance  to  the 
city  from  the  Woodlands.  .  .  . 

"  In  April,  1792,  when  my  mother's  family  were  to  re 
move  to  the  house  of  Dr.  Spring,  in  Watertown,  about  seven 
miles  from  Boston,  I  was  permitted  to  go  there  by  sea,  and 
it  was  my  first  acquaintance  with  it.  I  well  recollect  that  I 
had  a  severe  seasoning,  for  the  voyage  occupied  a  fortnight, 
one-half  of  which  was  a  gale  of  wind;  but  after  three  days 
of  sea-sickness,  I  enjoyed  the  passage  vividly,  and  I  have  now 
on  my  mind,  with  the  distinctness  of  a  picture,  Holmes  Hole 
and  Tarpaulin  Cove,  in  Martha's  Vineyard,  where  we  cast 
anchor  to  obtain  refreshments,  Nantucket  Shoals,  and  the 
dashing  of  the  waves  on  what  I  believe  is  called  the  Great 
Shoal,  the  coast  of  Cape  Cod,  and,  above  all,  the  beauty  of 
Boston  Harbour,  the  spires  of  the  town,  Beacon  Hill,  and 
the  whole  country  sending  back  the  bright  rays  of  the  rising 
sun  as  we  entered  on  a  glorious  May  morning.  It  seemed 
as  if  town  and  country,  the  hills,  the  uplands,  and  the  islands, 
had  all  arisen  with  the  sun  to  offer  their  joyous  thanks  to  the 
Creator  for  the  returning  light. 

"  I  arrived  before  the  family,  and  passed  a  couple  of 
days  in  Boston,  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Lucas,  one  of  my  father's 
friends,  who  came  to  the  packet  at  Long  Wharf  for  me,  and 
as  we  were  going  up,  stopt  a  gentleman  named  Mackay,  and 
told  him  I  was  Dr.  Binney's  son.  Captain  Mackay  brought 
the  blood  to  my  face  by  saying  that  he  hoped  I  would  be  a 
better  man  than  my  father,  but  it  went  back  upon  his  add 
ing  that  I  might  be  satisfied  if  I  was  as  good." 

Soon  after  reaching  Mr.  Lucas's  the  boy  went  out  alone 
for  a  walk,  not  reflecting  that  the  streets  of  Boston,  unlike 
those  of  Philadelphia,  had  a  character  of  their  own,  and  not 
one  borrowed  from  a  chess-board.  Interested  in  the  novel 

16 


1792]  BIRTH   AND    CHILDHOOD 

sights,  he  went  on  without  noting  the  turns,  until  he  finally 
realized  that  he  did  not  know  the  way  back.  Boy-like,  he  had 
forgotten  to  ask  Mr.  Lucas's  house  number,  or  even  the  name 
of  the  street,  and  now  he  was  ashamed  to  inquire  where  the 
house  was,  thinking  that  every  one  would  say  he  was  a  silly 
Philadelphia  boy,  who  did  not  know  enough  to  find  his  way 
home.  The  farther  he  went,  the  more  astray  he  felt,  but 
presently  he  remembered  that  in  the  morning,  as  he  came  up 
from  Long  Wharf,  he  had  seen  a  high  monument,  so  he 
asked  some  one  where  the  monument  was,  and  was  told  it  was 
on  Beacon  Hill.  He  went  there,  and  making  out  Long 
Wharf,  took  his  bearings  and  went  directly  to  it.  Once 
there,  and  remembering  the  way  he  had  gone  in  the  morning, 
he  easily  found  the  house  again,  having  asked  no  questions 
except  about  the  monument.6 

"  On  Saturday  after  my  arrival,  one  of  Dr.  Spring's 
medical  pupils  came  for  me,  and  took  me  to  the  mansion 
house  at  Watertown,  where  I  was  received  by  Mrs.  Gray, 
Dr.  Spring's  sister,  a  venerable  lady  who  had  been  for  some 
time  resident  in  his  family,  and  her  daughter,  Polly  Gray, 
a  very  sprightly  and  intelligent  woman,  who  afterwards 
married  Barnabas  Bidwell.  I  perceived,  by  the  order  of 
things  on  the  night  of  my  arrival,  that  Mrs.  Gray  was  a  very 
religious  woman,  the  evening  being  passed  in  some  degree 
as  a  preparation  for  the  Lord's  day.  The  sewing  and  knit 
ting  were  put  away  at  sunset,  and  either  books  or  sober  con 
versation  employed  the  remaining  hours.  On  the  next  day 
we  went  to  meeting,  as  it  was  called  (a  Congregational 
church),  morning  and  afternoon,  and  immediately  after 
sundown  what  was  my  dismay  at  seeing  the  sewing  and 
knitting  resumed,  and  pretty  much  the  usual  course  of  a 


e  See  Gail  Hamilton's  Life  in  Letters,  vol.  ii.  p.  711. 
IT 


HORACE    BINNEY  [Mv.  12 

week-day  evening  pursued.  I  did  not  dare  to  express  my 
surprise  otherwise  than  by  my  looks;  but  I  was  soon  made 
to  understand  that  the  Lord's  day  was  thought  by  Mrs.  Gray 
to  begin  on  Saturday  evening  and  to  end  with  sunset  on 
Sunday.  She  was,  I  believe,  the  widow  of  a  clergyman  who 
had  been  settled  at  Kittery,  in  Maine,  where  this  opinion  was 
common,  as,  indeed,  it  was,  and  I  believe  still  is,  in  many  parts 
of  New  England,  but  after  my  mother's  arrival  there  was 
no  sewing  or  knitting  on  Sunday  evening,  nor,  from  regard 
to  Mrs.  .Gray,  any  on  Saturday  evening.  For  some  years, 
however,  after  my  removal  to  Watertown  the  waggoner's 
team  was  at  rest  as  soon  as  the  sun  was  down  on  Saturday 
evening;  and  I  could  generally  tell  when  the  sun  was  down 
on  Saturday  by  the  sound  of  the  wheels  upon  the  stony  road 
before  Dr.  Spring's  house.  Before  I  left  Watertown  to 
return  to  Philadelphia,  Saturday  evening  had  lost  its  dis 
tinction  in  the  part  of  Massachusetts  where  I  lived,  and  I 
am  not  sure  that  Sunday  evening  had  quite  regained  hers. 

'  Very  soon  after  my  mother's  arrival  Dr.  Spring  took 
me  to  a  boarding-school  near  Medford,  about  six  or  seven 
miles  from  Boston,  and  as  many  from  Watertown,  of  which 
a  Mr.  Woodbridge  was  principal.  I  was  already  prepared 
to  enter  the  Freshman  class  at  Cambridge,  but  was  too  young. 
I  was  taken  there  to  grow  older,  rather  than  to  be  fitted  for 
college.  The  house  and  grounds  appropriated  to  this  school 
were  formerly  the  property  and  residence  of  Sir  William 
Pepperill,  and  resembled  some  of  the  old  manorial  residences 
in  England.  The  mansion  house  was  large  and  stately,  very 
ample  for  the  accommodation  of  large  classes  of  boys  and 
girls,  for  there  were  both  departments  in  it,  and  the  class 
rooms  of  the  boys  were  in  a  large  summer-house  in  the  gar 
den,  built  with  the  pretensions  in  some  degree  of  a  Grecian 
temple.  The  gardens  were  in  the  ancient  style,  the  walks 

18 


1792]  BIRTH    AND    CHILDHOOD 

straight,  the  box  borders  and  some  of  the  trees  trimmed  as  is 
now  very  common  in  Italy,  and  flowering  shrubs  and  fruit- 
trees  planted  about  in  great  profusion.  It  was  to  the  eye  a 
very  attractive  place,  but  I  was  not  destined  to  remain  there. 
"  On  the  day  after  my  arrival  I  was  called  up  by  Mr. 
Woodbridge  to  recite  a  Greek  lesson  in  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles.  I  ought  to  premise,  in  excuse  of  myself,  that  for 
a  year  before  I  left  Bordentown  I  had  passed  for  the  best 
scholar  at  that  school.  I  was  grinder  to  several  of  the  boys 
who  were  older  than  I  was,  and  I  thought  myself  quite  strong 
in  the  Greek  Testament.  I  had  been  quite  frequently  flat 
tered  by  being  told  so,  and  I  certainly  believed  it.  I  began 
my  translation  to  my  new  master  with  some  confidence,  but 
had  not  proceeded  far,  when  he  told  me  I  was  wrong,  and 
gave  what  he  deemed  was  the  proper  version,  to  which  I 
replied  that  I  was  right,  and  he  was  wrong.  He  immedi 
ately  asked,  '  Is  this  your  Philadelphia  politeness?'  I  an 
swered,  '  It  is  my  Philadelphia  Greek,  sir.'  This,  to  be  sure, 
was  very  impudent  on  my  part;  but  I  recollect  feeling  at 
the  time  that  my  master  was  wholly  ignorant  of  Greek,  or 
he  could  not  have  translated  the  verse  as  he  had  done.  I  do 
not  recollect  how  the  affair  ended  in  the  recitation-room,  but 
it  did  not  end  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  me  forget  the  occur 
rence.  None  of  the  boys  in  the  school  we*e  as  far  advanced 
as  I  was,  and  I  therefore  felt  myself  too  much  above  them 
to  take  counsel  of  them  in  the  matter ;  I  took  my  own  counsel. 
While  I  was  pondering  my  course,  the  boys  were  called  to 
dinner  in  a  parlour  by  themselves.  The  girls  were  in  another 
parlour.  It  occurred  to  me  that  I  could  not  stay  at  that 
school  any  longer,  but  I  did  not  readily  perceive  how  I  was 
to  get  away,  for  Dr.  Spring  had  returned  home  after  leaving 
me,  and  might  not  perhaps  come  to  see  me  for  a  month. 
Even  the  way  to  his  house  was  unknown  to  me,  as  I  had 

19 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Ex.  12-13 

never  gone  over  it  but  once.  There  were  difficulties  both 
ways,  staying  and  going,  which  I  chewed  more  than  my 
dinner ;  but  while  I  was  at  the  work  I  observed  that  a  ragged 
leg  of  mutton,  which  had  been  terribly  hacked,  was  brought 
from  the  girls'  table  and  placed  on  the  boys'  as  a  supplement 
to  their  own  scant  supply.  This  settled  the  point.  I  had  not 
been  accustomed,  as  I  thought,  to  eat  after  the  girls,  and  I 
liked  the  first  instance  of  it  even  less  than  Mr.  Woodbridge's 
Greek.  I  accordingly  proceeded  forthwith  to  my  sleeping- 
room,  tied  up  in  a  handkerchief  the  few  clothes  I  had  brought, 
and  walked  with  it  in  my  hand  through  the  dining-room  to 
the  front  door,  and  from  thence  to  the  high  road.  Nobody 
questioned  me,  though  all  saw  me.  It  was  then  about  two 
o'clock,  and  was  beginning  to  rain,  but  it  was  impossible  to 
go  back,  and  I  therefore  proceeded  through  rain  and  mud, 
guessing  and  asking  my  way,  until  I  got  with  my  pack  to 
Dr.  Spring's  house.  My  poor  mother  was,  of  course,  much 
grieved  to  see  me,  and  feared  I  had  been  turned  away;  but 
I  soon  quieted  her  as  to  this,  by  saying  I  had  come  away  of 
my  own  accord.  The  inquiry  then  followed  as  to  the  cause, 
and  I  never  shall  forget  the  suppressed  laugh  and  the  con 
vulsive  shake  of  Dr.  Spring  when  I  told  my  mother  that  it 
was  because  Mr.  Woodbridge  did  not  understand  Greek. 
There  was  something  so  irresistibly  droll  in  a  flaxen-headed 
boy  of  twelve  disposing  of  a  school-master's  reputation  at  a 
slap,  and  leaving  him  in  contempt  to  trudge  home  in  the  rain 
and  mud,  that  after  a  little  while  my  mother  joined  in  the 
laugh,  and  then  I  forgot  all  my  trouble  and  told  of  the  leg 
of  mutton.  It  was  arranged  the  next  day  that  Dr.  Spring, 
during  his  morning's  drive,  should  call  for  my  books  and 
explain  why  I  did  not  return ;  but  how  he  explained  it  I  never 
asked  or  knew.  I  think  that  it  would  have  ruined  me  had  I 
been  compelled  to  return. 

20 


/- 

X        O 


1792-93]      BIRTH   AND    CHILDHOOD 

"  I  was  then  placed  under  the  care  of  a  clergyman  at 
Menotomy,  now  called  West  Cambridge,  the  northwest 
parish  of  Cambridge,  and  there  I  remained  until  July,  1793, 
when  I  entered  Harvard  College.  The  year  I  passed  at 
Menotomy  was  one  of  the  brightest  periods  of  my  life.  Mr. 
Fisk,  the  clergyman,  was  a  most  amiable  man,  and  I  was  his 
only  pupil.  I  lived  about  a  furlong  from  his  house,  with  a 
motherly  woman,  whom  everybody  called  Aunt  Polly  Cook, 
the  daughter  of  the  former  clergyman  of  the  parish,  and  who 
watched  over  me  and  loved  me  as  her  own  child.  In  front 
of  the  houses,  —  Mr.  Fisk's  and  Aunt  Polly  Cook's,  —  the  only 
houses  in  that  part  of  the  village,  was  a  pretty  lake,  about  a 
mile  long  and  perhaps  half  a  mile  wide,  full  of  fish,  and 
frozen  half-way  to  the  bottom  during  the  winter.  Mr.  Fisk, 
having  but  a  small  salary,  cultivated  a  few  acres  about  him, 
planted  and  ploughed  his  own  Indian  corn  and  potatoes,  and 
sowed  and  cut  his  own  rye,  and  between  riding  horses  to 
plough,  cutting  my  fingers  with  the  sickle,  digging  potatoes, 
fishing  and  skating,  I  made  out  to  grow  old  enough  to  go  to 
College,  doing  little  more  with  my  Latin  and  Greek  than 
bowing  to  them  once  a  week  to  keep  up  the  acquaintance.  I 
ought  to  say,  however,  that  I  was  terribly  frightened  in  the 
spring  by  the  prediction  of  a  poor  consumptive  sister  of  Miss 
Cook  that  I  should  be  rejected  by  the  examiners;  and  shortly 
after  she  died.  I  knew  that  she  had  uttered  the  prediction  in 
a  moment  of  irritation,  because  I  had  shattered  her  nerves  by 
slamming  to  the  door;  but  still  it  was  a  prediction,  and  she 
was  now  dead;  and  the  dying  are  thought  to  look  further 
into  futurity  than  other  people.  It  frightened  me,  however. 
into  hard  study,  as  perhaps  it  was  kindly  intended  to  do  ;  and 
with  two  or  three  months  of  good  work,  I  not  only  got  in,  but 
with  credit." 


21 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  13 


II 

LIFE    AT    COLLEGE    AND    AS    A    LAW    STUDENT 

1793-1800 

HARVARD  COLLEGE  in  1793  contained  but  few 
professors  and  tutors,  and  less  than  three  hundred 
students.  The  buildings  were  Massachusetts,  Har 
vard,  and  Hollis  Halls  and  the  Holden  Chapel.  The  presi 
dent,  Joseph  Willard,  lived  in  the  Wadsworth  house,  and 
there  Horace  Binney  was  lodged,  as  one  of  the  family  circle, 
for  the  first  three  months  of  his  college  life.  Dr.  Spring's 
residence  was  but  four  miles  away,  and  at  first  the  boy  must 
have  been  there  frequently,  during  the  period  of  his  mother's 
last  illness.  She  died  on  November  9,  1793,  at  the  age  of 
thirty-seven. 

"  Among  the  most  grateful  recollections  of  my  youth," 
he  wrote,  "  is  that  of  tending  her  dying  bed  and  soothing  her 
intervals  of  exemption  from  extreme  pain  with  some  simple 
airs  on  the  flute,  which  I  was  then  learning.  She  employed 
me  about  her  in  many  little  offices  for  her  comfort  that  a  boy 
could  perform,  and  so  spoke  of  me  to  her  friends  as  to  give 
me  quite  a  character  in  the  neighbourhood.  Alas !  that  I  was 
to  be  deprived  of  the  happiness  of  this  relation  in  after-days, 
when  I  should  have  better  appreciated  it,  and  when  I  should 
have  better  known  her,  though  it  would  have  been  impossible 
for  me  to  love  her  more  than  I  did." 

The  following  June  was  saddened  by  the  death  of 
Horace  Binney's  only  remaining  brother,  John,  a  boy  of 
nearly  ten  years,  and  of  remarkably  bright  mind.  Of  Dr. 
Binney's  six  children  but  three  were  now  left. 


1793]  LIFE    AT    COLLEGE 

After  Mrs.  Spring's  death  her  children's  nearest  friends 
were  their  step-father  and  their  aunt,  Mrs.  Nicholas  Brown, 
of  Providence.  "  I  doubt,"  wrote  Mr.  Binney,  "  whether 
men  in  general  love  their  own  children  more  than  Dr.  Spring 
loved  us  all.  The  proofs  of  it  recollected  hy  me  are  innu 
merable.  His  house  was  our  home  while  he  lived.  He  con 
stantly  watched  me,  and  often  visited  me  while  I  was  in 
college,  gave  me  such  advice  as  a  father  would  give  to  his 
own  son,  took  the  highest  satisfaction  in  every  report  of  my 
improvement,  and  omitted  nothing  that  he  thought  would 
make  me  better  or  happier.  .  .  . 

"  My  aunt  Avis  was  a  person  of  remarkable  understand 
ing,  and  as  nearly  perfect  as  human  nature  admits  of.  She 
was  the  bosom  friend  of  my  father  to  the  time  of  his  death, 
and  upon  that  event  she  transferred  to  his  children,  and  con 
tinued  to  them  during  her  life,  the  vivid  affection  she  had 
borne  to  him.  .  .  .  My  winter  vacation  while  at  college  was 
never  spent  so  agreeably  as  at  her  house,  when  I  was  from 
fourteen  to  seventeen  years  old,  and  my  aunt  between  fifty 
and  sixty ;  yet  frequently  I  was  the  only  inmate  with  herself 
and  her  domestics.  I  was  a  stranger  to  restraint  and  equally 
so  to  ennui,  and  I  was  always  learning  or  enjoying  while  in 
her  presence.  I  hope  I  learned  some  things  from  her  that  I 
never  can  forget.  .  .  . 

"  I  was  always  within  reach  of  domestic  counsel;  but 
with  all  this  I  recollect  college  as  a  perilous  place,  and  call 
to  mind  perhaps  half  a  dozen  forks  of  the  road,  where,  by 
the  providence  of  Heaven,  I  took  the  right  path,  when  the 
other  would  probably  have  led  me  to  ruin.  In  one  instance 
my  safety  was  owing  to  the  suggestion  of  one  of  the  most 
profligate  young  men  in  college,  who  was  about  a  year  after 
expelled  on  account  of  misconduct,  and  who  seems  to  haVe 
given  evidence  in  my  case  of  some  remains  of  virtue,  which 

03 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^T.  13-17 


after  graduation,  Mr.  Binney  said,  "  During  our  college 
intimacy  he  thought  of  himself  very  constantly,  to  bring  him 
or  to  keep  him  to  the  internal  standard  that  was  his  pole-star  ; 
but  never  in  connection  with  the  design  or  desire  of  excelling 
another,  the  common  stimulus  of  young  men  at  college,  and 
the  root  of  a  thousand  bitter  fruits.  This  may  account  for 
some  mutual  manifestations  during  our  college  intimacy. 
Whether  I  owe  it  to  him,  or  it  was  an  hereditary  seed,  I  do 
not  know,  but  from  my  earliest  day  to  the  present  I  have 
been  in  perfect  sympathy  with  your  father  in  this  respect. 
There  was  a  trial  examination  of  us  two,  before  the  whole 
class,  near  the  close  of  the  senior  year,  and  without  any  pre 
vious  intimation  to  either  of  us,  or  to  anybody  that  we  knew 
of.  It  was  by  Professor  Pearson,  and  upon  Burlamaqui's 
two  volumes  on  Natural  and  Political  Law.  He  began  with 
your  father,  who  was  the  oldest  by  three  or  four  years,  and 
to  every  question,  perhaps  a  hundred,  which  Professor  Pear 
son  put  to  him  on  one  of  the  volumes  he  answered  fully 
and  accurately.  And  I  was  delighted,  as  usual,  with  his 
performance. 

"  Had  I  known  what  was  to  follow,  I  should  perhaps 
have  been  disturbed  by  thinking  of  myself;  but  when  my 
name  was  next  called  I  was  in  the  calmest  temper  for  re 
sponding  in  like  manner  upon  the  other  volume.  Had  I 
envied  your  father  the  least  in  the  world,  his  success  might 
have  over-excited  and  flustered  me,  and  this,  I  am  sure,  would 
have  pained  him  more  than  anybody.  At  the  end  of  my 
examination  the  class  was  dismissed,  and  then  we  first  knew, 
as  the  class  did,  Dr.  Pearson's  design.  The  trial  and  the 
result  were  the  things  desired  by  us  both,  and  so  it  was  with 
him  always.  It  would  have  been  unjust  to  say  there  was 
competition  between  us,  any  more  than  there  is  between  two 
pretty  fast  walkers  side  by  side,  who  are  talking  and  com- 

26 


1793-97]  LIFE    AT    COLLEGE 

miming  with  each  other  all  the  way,  and  mean  to  arrive  side 
by  side  at  the  boundary."  * 

Of  college  amusements  Mr.  Binney  has  left  no  record, 
but  he  was  a  member  of  the  Institute  of  1770  and  one  of 
the  founders  of  the  Hasty  Pudding  Club.  In  Senior  year 
he  was  president  of  the  class,  and  his  classmates  generally 
thought  him  their  best  scholar.  The  faculty  thought  other 
wise,  but  deemed  his  position  so  nearly  equal  to  the  first 
as  to  call  for  the  creation  of  a  special  "  part"  (the  English 
oration,  never  before  assigned  to  any  one  except  the  vale 
dictorian)  at  the  Commencement  of  1797,  instead  of  that 
usually  assigned  to  the  second  place.  The  oration  itself  he 
regarded  as  a  failure,  owing  to  its  topic.  Looking  back  on 
his  college  course,  after  forty  years  of  active  life,  he  wrote: 

"  It  does  not  now  occur  to  me  that  I  ever  missed  a  recita 
tion,  or  the  chapel  services  at  six  in  the  morning,  winter  or 
summer.  Much  that  I  acquired  there  is  in  one  sense  lost,  and 
can  now  never  be  regained,  but  the  unfading  art  which  I 
acquired  at  college  was  that  of  study;  and  if  the  acquisitions 
of  knowledge  I  there  made  by  it  are  faded  or  fallen  from 
the  surface,  I  may  hope  that  they  have  still  fertilized  the 
soil  of  my  mind,  and  certainly  the  art  or  faculty  of  study  has 
never  left  me.  Perilous  were  many  of  my  passages  during 
those  four  years,  but  I  have  no  recollection  that  I  ever  did 
a  thing  to  make  my  friends  blush,  and  their  praises  when 
I  left  it  gave  me  courage  to  begin  my  first  step  in  the 
world." 

While  in  college  Horace  Binney  occasionally  visited  the 
court-houses  in  Boston  and  Cambridge,  and  listened  to  some 
of  the  ablest  forensic  orators  of  the  day.  He  was  particu- 

1  Letter  to  Rev.  W.  O.  White,  May  11,  1863.  A  letter  to  Dr.  Lieber,  Decem 
ber  24,  1867,  alludes  to  this  incident,  adding,  "The  class  saw  that  it  was  an 
examination  only  for  the  first  honour,  and  it  was  a  drawn  match." 

27 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^T.  13-17 


after  graduation,  Mr.  Binney  said,  "  During  our  college 
intimacy  he  thought  of  himself  very  constantly,  to  bring  him 
or  to  keep  him  to  the  internal  standard  that  was  his  pole-star; 
but  never  in  connection  with  the  design  or  desire  of  excelling 
another,  the  common  stimulus  of  young  men  at  college,  and 
the  root  of  a  thousand  bitter  fruits.  This  may  account  for 
some  mutual  manifestations  during  our  college  intimacy. 
Whether  I  owe  it  to  him,  or  it  was  an  hereditary  seed,  I  do 
not  know,  but  from  my  earliest  day  to  the  present  I  have 
been  in  perfect  sympathy  with  your  father  in  this  respect. 
There  was  a  trial  examination  of  us  two,  before  the  whole 
class,  near  the  close  of  the  senior  year,  and  without  any  pre 
vious  intimation  to  either  of  us,  or  to  anybody  that  we  knew 
of.  It  was  by  Professor  Pearson,  and  upon  BurlamaquFs 
two  volumes  on  Natural  and  Political  Law.  He  began  with 
your  father,  who  was  the  oldest  by  three  or  four  years,  and 
to  every  question,  perhaps  a  hundred,  which  Professor  Pear 
son  put  to  him  on  one  of  the  volumes  he  answered  fully 
and  accurately.  And  I  was  delighted,  as  usual,  with  his 
performance. 

"  Had  I  known  what  was  to  follow,  I  should  perhaps 
have  been  disturbed  by  thinking  of  myself;  but  when  my 
name  was  next  called  I  was  in  the  calmest  temper  for  re 
sponding  in  like  manner  upon  the  other  volume.  Had  I 
envied  your  father  the  least  in  the  world,  his  success  might 
have  over-excited  and  flustered  me,  and  this,  I  am  sure,  would 
have  pained  him  more  than  anybody.  At  the  end  of  my 
examination  the  class  was  dismissed,  and  then  we  first  knew, 
as  the  class  did,  Dr.  Pearson's  design.  The  trial  and  the 
result  were  the  things  desired  by  us  both,  and  so  it  was  with 
him  always.  It  would  have  been  unjust  to  say  there  was 
competition  between  us,  any  more  than  there  is  between  two 
pretty  fast  walkers  side  by  side,  who  are  talking  and  com- 


1793-97]  LIFE    AT    COLLEGE 

muning  with  each  other  all  the  way,  and  mean  to  arrive  side 
by  side  at  the  boundary."  l 

Of  college  amusements  Mr.  Binney  has  left  no  record, 
but  he  was  a  member  of  the  Institute  of  1770  and  one  of 
the  founders  of  the  Hasty  Pudding  Club.  In  Senior  year 
he  was  president  of  the  class,  and  his  classmates  generally 
thought  him  their  best  scholar.  The  faculty  thought  other 
wise,  but  deemed  his  position  so  nearly  equal  to  the  first 
as  to  call  for  the  creation  of  a  special  "  part"  (the  English 
oration,  never  before  assigned  to  any  one  except  the  vale 
dictorian)  at  the  Commencement  of  1797,  instead  of  that 
usually  assigned  to  the  second  place.  The  oration  itself  he 
regarded  as  a  failure,  owing  to  its  topic.  Looking  back  on 
his  college  course,  after  forty  years  of  active  life,  he  wrote : 

"  It  does  not  now  occur  to  me  that  I  ever  missed  a  recita 
tion,  or  the  chapel  services  at  six  in  the  morning,  winter  or 
summer.  Much  that  I  acquired  there  is  in  one  sense  lost,  and 
can  now  never  be  regained,  but  the  unfading  art  which  I 
acquired  at  college  was  that  of  study;  and  if  the  acquisitions 
of  knowledge  I  there  made  by  it  are  faded  or  fallen  from 
the  surface,  I  may  hope  that  they  have  still  fertilized  the 
soil  of  my  mind,  and  certainly  the  art  or  faculty  of  study  has 
never  left  me.  Perilous  were  many  of  my  passages  during 
those  four  years,  but  I  have  no  recollection  that  I  ever  did 
a  thing  to  make  my  friends  blush,  and  their  praises  when 
I  left  it  gave  me  courage  to  begin  my  first  step  in  the 
world." 

While  in  college  Horace  Binney  occasionally  visited  the 
court-houses  in  Boston  and  Cambridge,  and  listened  to  some 
of  the  ablest  forensic  orators  of  the  day.  He  was  particu- 

1  Letter  to  Rev.  W.  O.  White,  May  11,  1863.  A  letter  to  Dr.  Lieber,  Decem 
ber  24,  1867,  alludes  to  this  incident,  adding,  "The  class  saw  that  it  was  an 
examination  only  for  the  first  honour,  and  it  was  a  drawn  match." 

27 


HORACE    BINNEY  MT.  17 


larly  interested  in  the  trial  of  one  Claflin,  indicted  of 
blasphemy,  and  defended  by  Theophilus  Parsons,  between 
whom  and  James  Sullivan,  the  Attorney-General,  occurred 
"  an  exhibition  of  intellectual  gladiature  of  the  brightest 
kind." 

"  My  imagination  fired  at  the  spectacle  of  this  omnis 
homo,  as  well  furnished  in  theology  as  in  law,  and  of  as 
much  repute  for  Greek  as  for  English,  Socratic  in  his  sub 
tlety,  and  not  otherwise  in  his  careless  dress,  his  purple 
bandana  handkerchief  curled  loosely  over  his  neckcloth,  and 
his  reddish-brown  scratch  something  awry,  he  all  the  while 
pouring  from  under  it  the  doctrines  he  had  culled,  and 
weaving  them  up  with  the  subtlest  ingenuity,  to  make  a 
covering  broad  enough  for  Claflin.  It  was  a  glory  of  the 
bar.  But  the  stiff  old  statute  was  too  much  for  him.  I  think 
I  recollect  a  part  of  Claflin's  sentence,  so  strange  to  the  ear 
of  a  Pennsylvania  lawyer,  —  that  he  should  sit  an  hour  upon 
the  gallows,  with  the  rope  round  his  neck!  Barring  the  rope, 
I  should  have  been  willing  to  sit  there  for  two,  not  for 
blasphemy,  nor  alongside  of  Claflin,  but  to  hear  a  repetition 
of  Parsons."  2 

Despite  his  admiration  for  Parsons's  eloquence,  the  young 
man's  own  inclination  was  to  his  father's  profession.  During 
his  senior  year  he  attended  Dr.  Warren's  lectures  on  anatomy 
and  read  several  medical  works,  but  Dr.  Spring  strongly 
dissuaded  him  from  medicine,  saying  that  if  he  chose  any  of 
the  learned  professions,  it  ought  to  be  law.  To  the  youth  of 
seventeen  success  in  that  calling  seemed  too  uncertain,  and 
hence,  on  reaching  Philadelphia,  in  November,  1797  (the 
prevalence  of  yellow  fever  there  having  kept  him  in  Provi 
dence  for  some  months  after  his  graduation),  he  sought  a 


2  Leaders  of  the  Old  Bar,  p.  17. 

28 


1797]  LIFE    AT    COLLEGE 

position  as  apprentice  with  Cunningham  &  Nesbit,  then 
extensive  shipping  merchants.  He  afterwards  admitted 
having  done  this  without  much  consideration  and  mainly 
because  he  knew  nothing  against  a  mercantile  career.  For 
tunately  the  counting-house  was  full,  and  he  turned  to  law, 
apparently  as  a  last  resort.  That  the  final  decision  was  in 
a  measure  dictated  by  chance  was  due  mainly  to  the  circum 
stances  of  his  position.  He  had  no  relatives  in  Philadelphia, 
nor  even  any  friends  who  knew  him  well  enough  to  advise 
with  reference  to  his  temperament  and  qualifications.  His 
guardian,  Dr.  David  Jackson,  belonged  to  the  profession 
from  which  Dr.  Spring  had  already  turned  him.  He  had, 
it  is  true,  a  moderate  patrimony,  but  he  must  have  realized 
that,  beyond  that,  all  that  the  future  could  offer  would  have 
to  be  won  by  his  own  efforts,  and  at  the  same  time  that  his 
habits  of  industry  and  application  warranted  a  reasonable 
hope  of  success  in  whatever  he  might  attempt. 

The  step  once  taken,  doubt  and  hesitation  vanished,  and 
he  bent  all  his  energies  to  the  task  before  him.  He  esteemed 
himself  particularly  fortunate  in  his  preceptor,  Jared  Inger- 
soll,  to  whom  he  afterwards  devoted  one  of  his  sketches  of 
the  "  Leaders  of  the  Old  Bar,"  and  whose  name,  he  said,  "  I 
can  never  mention  without  the  prof  oundest  veneration,  as  my 
master  and  guide  in  the  law."  His  method  of  study  in  Mr. 
Ingersoll's  office  was  undoubtedly  the  same  which,  in  another 
of  those  sketches,  he  described  as  that  which  Edward  Tilgh- 
man  had  pursued.  "  [This],  which  may  be  called  the  old 
way,  is  a  methodical  study  of  the  general  system  of  law,  and 
of  its  grounds  and  reasons,  beginning  with  the  fundamental 
law  of  estates  and  tenures,  and  pursuing  the  derivative 
branches  in  logical  succession,  and  the  collateral  subjects  in 
due  order,  by  which  the  student  acquires  a  knowledge  of 
principles  that  rule  in  all  departments  of  the  science,  and 

29 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^ET.  17-19 


learns  to  feel,  as  much  as  to  know,  what  is  in  harmony  with 
the  system  and  what  is  not.  .  .  .  The  profession  knows 
[this]  by  its  fruits  to  be  the  most  effectual  way  of  making 
a  great  lawyer."  3 

Of  his  life  as  a  law-student,  he  wrote  :  "  My  office  life 
with  Mr.  Ingersoll  was  a  very  happy  one.  I  endeavoured  to 
learn  my  profession  accurately,  and  after  yielding  in  a  few 
instances,  I  afterwards  strenuously  resisted  the  social  tempta 
tions  which  on  all  sides  assail  a  young  man  in  a  large  city, 
especially  if  he  can  play  pretty  well  on  the  flute  and  sing 
an  agreeable  song,  as  I  could.  I  had  not  spread  my  sails  to 
this  gale  for  more  than  a  few  months  before  I  perceived  the 
danger,  and  from  that  time  I  so  reefed  them  as  to  make 
pretty  safe  weather.  When  I  look  back,  however,  upon  this 
period  of  my  life,  uncounselled  as  I  was,  and  without  family 
friends  near  me,  committing  faults,  but  retaining  my  prefer 
ence  for  virtue  amid  many  bad  examples,  I  feel  the  deepest 
gratitude  to  the  Providence  that  guarded  me,  as  well  as  to 
the  maternal  friend  at  a  distance,  whose  former  counsels  were 
ever  recurring  to  me,  as  the  whisperings  of  an  attendant 
genius. 

"  Two  of  my  fellow-students  were  Mr.  Wallace,  who 
afterwards  married  my  oldest  sister,  and  Mr.  John  Sergeant. 
A  third  friendship  was  soon  after,  from  professional  affini 
ties,  contracted  with  Mr.  Charles  Chauncey.  They  con 
tributed  to  keep  up  my  own  standard  of  rectitude,  and  in 
many  things  to  raise  it.  The  contentions  of  professional  life 
and  the  struggle  for  personal  success  may  sometimes  have 
given  a  momentary  disturbance  to  the  connection  of  those  of 
us  who  became  devoted  to  the  bar,  .  .  .  but  it  rarely  happens 
to  three  individuals  of  the  same  profession  to  live  so  long  in 


3  Leaders  of  the  Old  Bar,  p.  50. 
30 


1797-99]       LIFE    AS    A   LAW    STUDENT 

unbroken  union  as  Mr.  Chauncey,  Mr.  Sergeant,  and  my 
self."  4 

The  Law  Association  of  Philadelphia  possesses  a  record 
of  this  friendship,  in  the  following  document: 

I,  Horace  Binney,  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  do  hereby  prom 
ise  to  pay  to  John  Sergeant  one-half  of  the  first  fee  I  shall  receive 
as  attorney  in  any  court  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  or  any  other 
State,  as  witness  my  hand  and  seal  this  30  May,  1799. 

Attest:  HORACE  BINNEY.     [SEAL] 

J.  B.  WALLACE. 

The  history  of  this  note  is  now  wholly  lost,  and  one  is 
left  to  conjecture  the  circumstances  under  which  it  was  made, 
what  could  have  been  the  unexpressed  consideration,  and 
whether  the  note  was  ever  presented  for  payment.  One  thing 
only  is  certain, — that  the  fee,  when  it  came,  was  not  a  large 
one. 

Closely  as  Mr.  Binney  pursued  his  law  studies,  he  did 
not  do  so  to  the  exclusion  of  the  broad  culture  for  which  he 
had  striven  at  college,  but  kept  up  an  extensive  outside  read 
ing,  both  of  the  classics  and  of  general  literature.  It  was 
at  this  time,  too,  that  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Judge 
Bushrod  Washington,  to  whom  the  third  circuit  was  assigned. 
Their  first  meeting  and  the  intimate  friendship  to  which  the 
judge  soon  admitted  him  are  recorded  in  his  sketch  of  the 
judge's  life,  written  in  1858,  as  an  expression  of  the  writer's 
"  love  for  his  virtues  and  admiration  for  his  remarkable 
judicial  qualities." 

Mr.  Binney 's  older  sister,  to  whom  he  was  devotedly 
attached,  was  with  him  in  Philadelphia  during  most  of  his 


4  This  was  probably  written  about  1839  or  1840.  A  few  years  later,  to  Mr. 
Binney's  intense  regret,  a  coldness  developed  between  him  and  Mr.  Sergeant, 
continuing  until  the  latter's  death  in  1852. 

31 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^BT.  19 


life  as  a  law  student,  and  his  first  experience  (not  the  only 
unfruitful  one)  in  sitting  for  a  portrait  was  due  to  her  re 
quest  for  a  miniature  by  a  certain  artist,  eminent  for  "  beau 
tiful"  pictures. 

"  I  told  her  my  cash  was  low,  and  so  put  her  off.  In 
about  a  fortnight  I  went  to  the  artist,  and  asked  him  to  let 
me  sit  to  him.  He  went  on  grandly,  telling  me  I  need  not 
look  till  he  told  me.  In  the  course  of  the  sittings,  he  called 
in  his  wife,  who  looked  at  me,  and  looked  at  the  picture,  and 
exclaimed,  '  What  a  charming  likeness  !  How  striking  !'  A 
Frenchman,  an  acquaintance  of  the  painter's,  also  came  in, 
looked,  and  cried  out,  '  Mon  dieu>  quelle  ressemblance!  Elle 
est  frappante.  Vraiment  le  portrait  est  beau,  sans  etre 
ftattef  After  some  further  sittings  the  painter  told  me  I 
might  look,  and  I  did;  but,  it  being  my  first  portrait,  I  did 
not  know  what  my  likeness  ought  to  look  like,  to  myself  of 
myself.  I  paid  my  money,  and  took  the  miniature  away. 
Some  days  afterwards  I  said  to  my  sister,  '  You  have  several 
acquaintances  in  Boston,  tell  me  which  this  is,'  showing  the 
miniature.  She  looked,  and  turned  up  her  eyes  to  recall; 
looked  again,  and  turned  them  up  again;  looked  down  and 
shut  them,  to  think  the  better  ;  opened  them  and  looked  again 
at  the  miniature,  paused  a  minute  or  two,  and  then  said, 
'  Upon  my  word  I  don't  know.  I  don't  think  I  ever  saw 
him.  Who  is  it?  It's  very  handsome,  but  it  is  impossible  I 
should  know  him.'  I  took  my  handkerchief  from  my  pocket, 
moistened  it  with  my  lips,  and  rubbed  the  face  out.  *  My 
dear  sister,'  said  I,  '  the  painter's  an  ass,  and  his  wife  and 
French  friend  are  -  .'  I  then  told  her  how  I  gave  my 
money,  and  what  I  got  for  it."  5 

In  the  summer  of  1799  Mr.  Binney  visited  his  relatives 


•Letter  to  Dr.  F.  Lieber,  November  30,  1861. 


1799]         LIFE    AS    A   LAW    STUDENT 

in  Watertown  and  Providence,  and  another  outbreak  of 
yellow  fever  in  Philadelphia  kept  him  away  until  November. 
To  this  period  belong  the  earliest  of  his  letters  now  extant, 
written  to  his  sister  there,  to  whom  also  he  wrote  quite  fre 
quently  after  her  return  to  Watertown  the  next  year.  The 
letters  are  somewhat  in  the  essay  style  then  prevalent,  give 
evidence  of  extensive  reading,  and,  though  not  descriptive, 
they  express  in  a  lively  way  the  writer's  views  on  various 
topics,  showing  the  cast  of  his  mind  at  an  interesting  period 
of  its  development.  Two  letters  to  his  classmate  White, 
written  soon  after  the  return  to  Philadelphia,  also  throw  some 
light  upon  Mr.  Binney's  habits  and  temperament  at  that 
time. 

PHILADA.  December  8th,  1799. 
MY  DEAR  WHITE, — 

Did  I  not  perfectly  recollect  that  while  at  college  you  were 
remarked  for  great  temperance  of  disposition,  I  should  absolutely 
dread  the  consequences  of  this  performance,  after  so  glaring  a  viola 
tion  of  promise.  "  I  will  write  as  soon  as  I  arrive  at  Philadelphia," 
were  my  words  which  accompanied  the  last  pressure  of  our  hands  at 
Craigie's  gate.  "  Rest  assured  of  a  letter  as  soon  as  I  get  home,"  was 
my  last  address  when  in  your  chaise  for  Worcester;  and  yet,  by 
heaven,  I  have  delayed  it  for  a  month.  Many  a  time  have  I  chewed 
my  thumb,  for  want  of  a  better  occupation,  when  I  could  have  written 
a  folio  to  you;  and  oftener,  to  my  shame  be  it  confessed,  has  my 
employment  been  worse  than  thumb-chewing,  when  it  could  have  been 
substituted  for  letter-writing.  You  know  what  Solomon  says, — there 
is  a  time  for  these  things, — and  I  have  become  so  perfect  a  methodist 
in  the  observance  of  times,  whether  by  reading  the  Bible  or  Coke  I 
cannot  tell,  that,  as  a  world  could  not  have  bribed  me  to  the  perform 
ance  of  my  contract  two  days  ago,  so  ten  worlds  should  not  bribe  me 
to  delay  it  two  days  longer.  I  confess  my  error,  and  turn  from  my 
ways.  Randolph's  confessions  were  not  more  precious,  and  his  vin 
dication  was  not  half  so  just.  .  .  . 
3  33 


HORACE    BINNEY  [M-n.  20 

In  the  political  way  I  have  nothing  to  amuse  you;  we  are 
just  getting  into  blast,  but  our  ore  is  not  yet  running.  Some  weeks 
hence,  by  the  time  you  get  this  letter  and  can  have  assured  me  that 
you  are  not  offended  by  my  long  silence,  we  shall  have  cast  something 
worthy  your  proof.  The  President  in  his  speech,  which  I  had  the 
satisfaction  to  hear,  has  made  no  communication  of  novel  fact,  but 
has  only  commented  on  one  or  two  circumstances  which  have  occurred 
during  the  recess.  The  defects  in  the  administration  of  justice  by 
the  courts  of  the  United  States  are  stated  by  lawyers  to  be  numerous 
and  aggravating ;  he  gave  it  in  charge  to  Congress  not  to  pass  them 
over  this  session,  the  just  punishment  of  crimes  and  the  proper  pro 
tection  of  innocence  depending  on  an  alteration.  This,  and  a  Bank 
rupt  law  again  brought  on  the  tapis,  will  afford  exercise  for  the  gown 
in  the  House,  and  speculation  for  it  without;  in  this  latter  scheme 
I  feel  almost  a  personal  interest,  having  suffered  hitherto  by  the  egre 
gious  looseness  of  the  Pennsylvania  system.  I  fear,  however,  it  may 
be  placed,  where  all  those  who  oppose  it  should  lie,  under  the  table. 

As  to  poetry,  history,  mathematics,  logick,  and  ethics,  I  know 
them  only  in  connection  with  law;  the  two  last  are,  to  be  sure,  the 
basis  and  superstructure,  and  I  ought  to  know  them  well,  good  law 
being  built  on  morality,  and  reared  into  system  by  deduction ;  but 
the  three  others,  except  so  much  as  I  meet  of  the  one  in  Coke  upon 
Littleton,  and  of  the  second  in  Pickering's  statute  book,  I  have 
greeted  to  no  amount  since  I  left  college. 

As  to  friendship  for  you,  if  my  law  knowledge  were  commen 
surate  with  it,  there  would  not  be  a  sounder  lawyer  or  a  better  friend 
on  the  continent  than 

H.  BINNEY. 

The  interest  which,  as  this  letter  shows,  Mr.  Binney  took 
in  the  proceedings  of  Congress  was  not  unnatural.  The  then 
House  of  Representatives,  as  he  afterwards  wrote,  "  was 
perhaps  never  exceeded,  in  the  number  of  its  accomplished 
debaters,  or  in  the  spirit  with  which  they  contended  for  the 
prize  of  public  approbation.  It  was  the  last  which  convened 

34 


1800]         LIFE    AS    A   LAW    STUDENT 

in  this  city,  and  furnished  a  continual  banquet  to  such  as  had 
the  taste  to  relish  the  encounter  of  minds  of  the  first  order, 
stimulated  to  their  highest  efforts,  and  sustained  by  the 
mutual  consciousness  of  patriotic  motives."  6  The  speech 
which  probably  impressed  the  young  law-student  most  was 
Marshall's  great  defence  of  the  act  of  the  Executive  in  sur 
rendering  Jonathan  Robbins  to  the  British  authorities  (the 
first  instance  of  extradition  by  the  United  States),  for  even 
seventy-five  years  later  Mr.  Binney  alluded  to  it  with  enthu 
siasm. 

Had  Philadelphia  remained  the  capital,  greater  famili 
arity  with  public  life  might  possibly  have  made  Mr.  Binney's 
views  of  it  different  from  what  they  soon  came  to  be;  but 
with  the  removal  of  the  seat  of  government  his  personal  in 
terest  in  its  doings  naturally  declined,  and  public  life  lost  for 
him  whatever  attraction  it  may  once  have  had. 

The  next  letter  seems  to  refer  to  some  suggestion  of 
White's  as  to  a  return  to  Cambridge  for  purposes  of  study. 

PHILADELPHIA,  Jan.  28,  1800. 
MY  DEAR  FRIEND, — 

I  hate  apologies,  and  therefore  will  not  say  why  I  have  not 
answered  you  ere  this.  Nothing,  however,  but  necessity  could  keep 
me  from  doing  that  for  which  I  procure  so  rich  a  return.  This  is  a 
very  strange  world.  I  do  not  like  it  so  well  as  I  did  three  weeks  ago, 
and  therein  consists  its  singularity.  To-day  I  am  in  tune ;  not  one 
chord  in  my  system  that  does  not  vibrate  music.  I  could  shake  my 
enemy  by  the  hand,  and  hope  sincerely  that  he  was  well.  The  second 
day  it  is  not  so  fair.  There  is  a  fog ;  some  of  my  strings  fall ;  and, 
take  me  all  together,  I  am  out  of  tune.  Still,  if  you  touch  a  note  at 
a  time  it  is  not  absolute  discord ;  it  gives  a  thin  simple  sound  that  is 
neither  one  thing  nor  another.  "  The  third  day  comes  a  frost."  What 


8  Eulogy  on  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  p.  51. 
35 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  20 

had  sunk  a  little  in  the  damp  of  yesterday  is  brought  up ;  what  was 
sufficiently  high  before,  cracks.  I  am  so  thoroughly  strained  that 
touch  me  and  I  give  way.  No  finger  so  delicate  as  to  get  aught  but 
discord.  I  pass  my  friend  in  the  street,  or,  like  the  Levite,  go  on  the 
other  side.  In  fact,  I  have  been  troubled  with  the  spleen, — a  long 
fit,  not  over  yet,  which  you  will  learn  before  I  get  to  the  end  of  my 
story.  The  fault  then,  say  you,  is  in  the  man,  not  in  the  world;  but 
then  the  world  makes  the  man.  It  has  made  me  feel  like  a  fool  for 
three  weeks,  and  therefore  I  do  not  like  it  so  well  as  I  did  three  weeks 
ago.  Q.  E.  D. 

You  opened  a  fountain  of  feeling  by  your  letter  which  for 
two  years  and  a  half  I  have  been  endeavouring  to  choak.  When  I 
left  college  it  was  with  regret  tempered  by  hope.  I  looked  on  my 
habits  with  affection.  They  had  been  reared  in  a  situation  which, 
compared  with  the  great  world,  was  a  solitude.  They  had  incor 
porated  with  themselves  some  feelings  which  were  to  a  great  degree 
ascetic;  and  when  I  looked  forward  to  the  outrage  which  they  must 
necessarily  receive  in  the  intercourse  of  dissipated  society,  honestly 
I  confess  to  you  'twas  with  sorrow.  Ambition,  however,  with  all  its 
combined  power,  knew  how  to  weave  a  spell  that  could  lull  this  sorrow. 
Its  eye  was  fixed  on  fame,  or  something  which  had  its  features,  conse 
quence  in  the  world;  and  between  this  fame,  this  consequence,  and 
the  otium  cum  dig.  of  my  former  life,  I  was  not  slow  to  make  a  pref 
erence.  When  the  choice  was  made,  I  considered  it  a  duty  to  controul 
every  sentiment  that  could  unsettle  it,  and  altho'  they  oftentimes 
would  arise,  yet  it  was  a  kind  of  Northampton  insurrection,  that  fell 
at  the  appearance  of  its  enemy.  Since  my  probation  thus  far,  I 
have  been  inclined  to  think  my  decision  was  just;  but  even  when 
pleased  with  the  present,  memory  can  still  sigh  at  the  past,  and  wish 
that  its  joys  could  have  been  consistently  prolonged.  When  I  have 
the  spleen  too, — as  I  have  said  before,  it  is  sometimes  my  companion, 
— these  lost  scenes  have  their  brightest  colours;  they  derive  addi 
tional  beauty  from  the  distance,  and  in  spite  of  myself  do  not  unfre- 
quently  raise  a  wish,  a  kind  of  half-formed  determination  to  see  them 
actually  once  more.  With  such  dispositions,  then,  it  is  not  surprizing 

36 


1800]         LIFE    AS   A   LAW    STUDENT 

that  your  letter  had  great  weight.  I  allowed  it  to  carry  me  with  it 
every  length,  until,  to  use  a  sailor  phrase,  I  was  "  brought  up  by  my 
cables."  My  cables  are  reason  and  prudence ;  by  the  one  I  was  taught 
my  incapacity  to  fill  the  office;  by  the  other,  that  if  I  once  entered 
it,  I  might  not  be  able  to  leave  it  in  good  season.  Believe  me,  my 
dear  White,  I  can  sufficiently  estimate  the  advantage  that  would  be 
derived  by  a  recluse  station  for  the  next  two  or  three  years,  and 
especially  by  a  renewed  connection  with  you  and  with  my  worthy 
classmate  Farrar.  But  my  friends  with  me  have  formed  my  arrange 
ments,  and  it  will  be  well  to  observe  them.  I  shall  continue  my  official 
vassalage  until  the  next  summer,  endeavour  to  gain  admittance  to  our 
Philada.  bar,  and  then  make  decisions  anew;  the  direction  or  nature 
of  which  at  present  I  do  not  see.  If  I  am  thrown  to  the  eastward,  let 
the  means  be  what  they  may,  I  shall  bless  them ;  and  let  it  be  at  any 
less  pleasant  point  of  the  compass,  as  a  lawyer  I  shall  conceive  it  an 
arrangement  of  heaven,  and  I  must  say,  "  Lord  incline  my  heart  to 
keep  thy  law."  At  all  events  I  shall  sally  from  Philada.  during  the 
dog  days,  and  shall  in  all  probability  visit  my  friends  in  New  Eng 
land.  I  can  then  commune  in  person  and  in  spirit  with  you;  while 
I  am  there  it  is  my  general  passover,  a  "  feast  of  reason  and  a  flow 
of  soul."  Mention  me  in  terms  of  very  respectful  esteem  to  my  friends 
J.  Bartlett  and  Farrar,  and  believe  me  most  truly 

Your  sincere  friend, 

H.  BlNNEY. 

The  uncertainty  about  his  future  place  of  residence  is 
also  alluded  to  in  a  letter  to  John  Pickering,  of  about  the 
same  date,  but  does  not  seem  to  have  lasted  long,  for  Mr. 
Binney  opened  an  office  in  Philadelphia  almost  immediately 
after  his  admission  to  the  har,  which  took  place  in  March, 
1800.  "  No  attention,"  he  wrote,  "  was  paid  at  that  time  to 
the  qualification  of  age,  or,  indeed,  any  other.  One  of  my 
examiners,  I  recollect,  did  not  know  what  was  the  general 
issue  in  an  action  of  trover,  and  he  knew  about  as  much  of 
law  in  general." 

37 


HORACE    BINNEY 


.  20 


III 

FIRST    YEARS    AT    THE    BAR— MARRIAGE 
1800-1807 

"  il  T  the  time  I  thus  came  to  the  bar,"  wrote  Mr.  Binney, 
/-\  "  the  eminent  men  of  the  profession  were  Ed- 
•*•  -^  ward  Tilghman,  William  Lewis,  Jared  Ingersoll, 
William  Rawle,  William  Tilghman,  and  Alexander  James 
Dallas.  They  then  engrossed  the  whole  important  business 
of  the  city,  and  the  young  men  of  the  bar  were  none  the 
worse  off  for  growing  up  under  them,  though  they  had  to 
grow  up  in  the  shade.  I  thought  the  apprenticeship  both  hard 
and  long.  Now  that  I  look  back  upon  it,  it  seems  to  have 
been  short. 

"  The  Supreme  Court  then  consisted  of  Shippen,  chief 
justice;  Yeates,  Smith,  and  Brackenridge,  justices.  The 
chief  justice  was  a  gentleman  of  the  old  school,  of  benign 
temper,  of  good  learning  in  the  law,  and  of  an  uncommon 
mass  of  it  in  regard  to  what  is  called  the  practice ;  but  either 
his  natural  temperament,  or  his  advanced  age  when  he  came 
to  that  office  in  1799,  made  him  rather  too  easy  and  accom 
modating  for  the  requisite  despatch  of  business.  He  wanted 
the  love  of  command,  or  the  faculty  of  efficient  superintend 
ence  and  control,  necessary  to  the  presiding  officer  of  such 
a  court.  He  inclined  to  let  things  take  the  course  which 
others  gave  to  them,  if  it  was  not  obviously  wrong.  Yeates 
was  a  very  good  lawyer,  and  a  first-rate  Pennsylvania  lawyer; 
that  is  to  say,  he  knew  better  than  any  on  the  bench  or  at 
the  bar  what  had  been  deemed  to  be  the  law  in  Pennsylvania. 
He  walked,  however,  by  what  has  been  called  the  '  balustrade 

38 


1800]        FIRST    YEARS    AT    THE    BAR 

of  cases.'  He  was  a  great  collector,  a  voluminous  common- 
placer  before  modern  indexes  had  saved  that  labour  and 
destroyed  all  the  fruits  of  it  in  the  bud;  a  careful  observer, 
a  deferential  follower  of  all  that  had  been  decided;  but  by 
the  force  of  his  own  mind  he  was  in  the  habit  of  doing  little, 
and  perhaps  unjustly  was  thought  unable  to  do  much.  If 
you  gave  him  a  case  you  had  him,  unless  he  could  give  you 
as  good  or  better  the  other  way.  He  was  also  kind  and 
courteous,  though  without  the  refinement  of  manners  which 
belonged  to  Shippen.  Smith  was  defectively  educated  in 
the  law,  but  by  great  industry  had  amassed  a  considerable 
knowledge  of  it.  He  was,  like  Yeates,  a  case  lawyer,  in 
ferior,  however,  to  him  in  the  extent  of  his  learning,  and  even 
less  inclined  to  leave  for  a  moment  the  support  of  adjudged 
cases  for  that  of  principle, — a  good  fault  in  moderation,  but 
a  gross  one  in  excess.  He  was  rough  and  bearish  in  his 
manners,  uncouth  in  his  person  and  address,  and  was  in 
capable  of  raising  the  skin  by  a  reproof  without  making  a 
gash.  But  he  was  a  truly  honest  man,  as  far  as  his  preju 
dices,  which  were  probably  unknown  to  himself,  would  per 
mit,  and  under  that  shaggy  coat  there  was  a  kind  and  warm 
heart.  He  had  been  a  deputy  surveyor,  and  from  this  per 
haps  got  the  habit  of  always  moving  in  a  right  line, — that  is, 
the  shortest  line  to  his  point, — and  this  contrasted  broadly 
with  the  waving  lines  of  the  chief  justice  and  Mr.  Yeates, 
though,  if  he  had  had  more  knowledge  of  law  and  the  gen 
eral  affairs  of  men,  his  disposition  in  this  respect  would  have 
been  best  for  the  bench  and  the  public.  His  notions  of  cere 
mony  were  very  strange,  and  with  his  utter  inability  to  dress, 
or  make  a  bow,  or  to  do  anything  else  like  other  people,  made 
him  in  some  situations  irresistible.  Mr.  Rawle  upon  one 
occasion  invited  some  of  the  bench  and  bar  to  dine  with  him 
at  Harley,  his  summer  residence  near  the  Falls  of  Schuylkill, 

39 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Ex.  20 

and  I  was  one  of  the  number.  It  was  a  day  in  July,  exces 
sively  hot,  and  the  Ridge  Road  dusty  to  suffocation.  I  went 
with  some  of  my  young  friends  in  a  hackney  coach,  and  we 
overtook  Judge  Smith  on  the  road.  He  was  on  horseback, 
in  enormous  boots  that  came  above  his  knees  like  a  fisher 
man's,  a  cocked  hat  exposing  his  whole  face  to  the  fiery  sun, 
and  a  full  cloth  dress  which  had  been  black  probably  when 
he  set  out,  but  when  we  saw  him  was  most  dirty  drab.  Some 
fifteen  minutes  after  our  arrival  he  came  into  the  saloon 
where  the  company  had  assembled.  His  hat  was  then  in  hand, 
but  on  his  head  was  a  mass  of  paste  made  by  the  powder  and 
pomatum,  a  part  of  which  had  run  down  in  white  streams 
upon  his  face,  as  red  in  all  the  unplastered  parts  as  a  boiled 
lobster,  and  his  immense  boots  and  spurs,  broad-skirted  coat, 
and  the  rest  of  the  appearance  I  have  described,  made  him 
the  most  extraordinary  figure  for  a  summer  dinner  that  I 
have  ever  seen;  but  he  did  not  appear  to  think  that  he  was 
otherwise  than  he  ought  to  be  for  the  honour  of  his  host,  or 
for  his  own  comfort.  To  this  person  I  owe  more  real  civility 
and  kindness,  both  at  the  bar  and  elsewhere,  than  to  any  other 
judge  of  the  court  until  the  time  of  William  Tilghman.  I 
know,  moreover,  from  the  representation  of  one  who  knew 
him  better  than  I  did,  that  he  was  susceptible  of  the  noblest 
emotions  of  generosity  and  benevolence. 

"  Brackenridge's  appointment  was  the  greatest  legal 
blunder  that  Governor  McKean  ever  made.  He  despised 
the  law,  because  he  was  utterly  ignorant  of  it,  and  affected 
to  value  himself  solely  upon  his  genius  and  taste  for  litera 
ture,  both  of  which  were  less  valued  by  every  one  else.  He 
once  said  to  me,  as  I  was  standing  by  his  chair  on  the  bench, 
*  Talk  of  your  Cokes  and  Littletons,  I  had  rather  have  one 
spark  of  the  ethereal  fire  of  Milton  than  all  the  learning 
of  all  the  Cokes  and  Littletons  that  ever  lived.'  The  mis- 

40 


1800]        FIRST    YEARS    AT    THE    BAR 

fortune  of  the  bench  was  that  he  had  not  a  grain  of  the  learn 
ing  that  he  undervalued,  and  that  his  fire,  such  as  it  was,  was 
not  ethereal.  He  hated  Judge  Yeates  to  absolute  loathing. 
If  Chief  Justice  Tilghman  had  not  sat  between  them,  I  think 
that  Brackenridge  would  sometimes,  at  a  later  period  of  his 
life,  have  spit  in  Yeates's  face,  from  mere  detestation.  Yet 
this  was  but  a  proof  of  his  own  brutality,  for  Yeates  was 
vastly  his  superior  in  everything  that  deserves  praise  among 
men,  and  never,  that  I  heard  of,  gave  him  any  cause  of 
offence.  It  is  not  certain  that  Brackenridge  was  at  all 
times  sane,  and  he  would  have  been  just  as  good  a  judge  as 
he  was  if  he  had  been  crazy  outright. 

"  I  once  saw  him  charge  a  jury  with  his  coat  and  jacket 
off,  standing  in  his  bare  feet,  with  his  boots  beside  him,  for 
he  had  no  stockings  at  that  time;  and  in  this  cause,  in  which 
I  was  of  counsel,  and  his  charge  was  in  favour  of  my  client, 
who  succeeded,  I  saw  what  satisfied  me  that  his  honesty  as  a 
judge  was  no  greater  than  his  learning. 

'  The  Common  Pleas  at  this  time  was  under  the  presi 
dency  of  John  D.  Coxe,  and  the  only  lawyer  in  it.  He  was 
a  sound  lawyer  and  a  very  honest  man,  a  little  too  much 
disturbed  by  his  doubts  and  his  talent  for  making  distinc 
tions,  but  on  the  whole  very  safe,  very  patient,  and  very  well 
tempered.  I  could  tell  when  a  doubt  had  seized  him,  by  the 
manner  in  which  he  pulled  one  of  his  eyebrows, — as  if  he 
could  disentangle  the  web  by  straightening  the  hairs. 

'  These  were  the  men  before  whom  I  had  to  make  my 
debut;  and  though  for  some  years  I  had  little  to  do  before 
them,  I  was  so  kindly  treated  by  them  in  all  I  had  to  do,  that 
it  is  quite  agreeable  to  me  thus  to  have  recalled  them,  and  I 
believe  without  a  feeling  of  resentment  against  the  worst  of 
them.  For  six  years  after  my  admission  my  porridge  would 
have  been  very  insipid  if  I  had  had  to  buy  my  salt  with  what 

41 


HORACE    BINNEY  MT.  20 


I  had  made  at  the  bar.  My  employment  consisted  mainly 
in  waiting  upon  the  courts,  and  thus  professing  my  readiness 
for  what  might  turn  up  ;  and  I  have  often  recommended  this 
to  young  men  as  better  than  remaining  all  the  time  in  their 
offices.  If  attentive,  they  will  learn  as  much  in  court  as  they 
can  in  their  offices  during  the  same  hours,  and  it  will  be  of 
more  use  to  them  as  regards  the  art  of  managing  causes. 
There  are  many  matters  in  the  law,  moreover,  that  cannot  be 
learned  anywhere  else." 

It  was  when  he  was  attending  court,  in  accordance  with 
this  practice,  in  April,  1800,  that  Mr.  Binney  witnessed  Wil 
liam  Lewis's  dramatic  protest  against  Judge  Chase's  course 
in  announcing  his  opinion  of  the  law  in  the  case  of  John 
Fries,  the  Northampton  insurgent,  before  the  jury  was  im 
panelled.  One  can  well  imagine  the  thrill  of  excitement  with 
which  the  young  lawyer  heard  Lewis's  solemn  declaration  of 
his  intention  to  withdraw  from  a  case  in  which  the  law  had 
been  prejudged,  and  the  rejoinder  that  then,  with  God's  help, 
the  court  would  be  the  prisoner's  counsel,  and  would  see  that 
he  had  a  fair  trial.1 

This  same  habit  of  attending  court  led  to  the  acquaint 
ance  with  Gilbert  Stuart,  who  in  1800  was  prosecuting  an 
injunction  against  the  sale  of  Chinese  copies  of  Stuart's 
Washington,  which  some  one  had  brought  from  Canton. 

"  I  was  sedulous  in  my  attendance  on  the  courts,  and  here 
I  became  acquainted  with  Stuart.  He  came  frequently  to 
my  office,  which  was  in  Front  Street.  I  was  always  enter 
tained  by  his  conversation.  I  endeavoured  to  enter  into  his 
peculiar  vein,  and  show  him  that  I  relished  his  wit  and  char 
acter.  So  he  took  snuff,  jested,  punned,  and  satirized  to  the 
full  freedom  of  his  bent.  '  Binney,'  he  said  to  one  of  my 


1  Leaders  of  the  Old  Bar,  p.  34. 


1800]        FIRST    YEARS    AT    THE    BAR 

friends,  '  has  the  length  of  my  foot  better  than  any  one  I 
know  of.' 

"  When  [my  sister]  requested  me  to  give  her  [a  por 
trait],  I  made  an  appointment  with  Stuart,  and  called  to  give 
my  first  sitting.  He  had  his  panel  ready  (for  the  picture  is 
painted  on  a  board) ,  and  I  said,  '  Now,  how  do  you  wish  me 
to  sit?  Must  I  be  grave?  Must  I  look  at  you?'  *  No/  said 
Stuart,  *  sit  just  as  you  like;  look  whichever  way  you  choose; 
talk,  laugh,  move  about,  walk  around  the  room,  if  you  please.' 
So,  without  more  thought  of  the  picture  on  my  part,  Stuart 
led  off  in  one  of  his  merriest  veins,  and  the  time  passed 
pleasantly  in  jocose  and  amusing  talk.  At  the  end  of  an  hour 
I  rose  to  go,  and,  looking  at  the  portrait,  I  saw  that  the  head 
was  as  perfectly  done  as  it  is  at  this  moment,  with  the  excep 
tion  of  the  eyes,  which  were  blank.  I  gave  one  more  sitting 
of  an  hour,  and  in  the  course  of  it  Stuart  said,  '  Now,  look 
at  me  one  moment.'  I  did  so.  Stuart  put  in  the  eyes  by  a 
couple  of  touches  of  the  pencil,  and  the  head  was  perfect.  I 
gave  no  more  sittings. 

'  When  the  picture  was  sent  home  it  was  much  admired; 
but  Mr.  T—  -  M—  -  observed  that  the  painter  had  put  the 
buttons  of  the  coat  on  the  wrong  side.  Some  time  after  this 
Stuart  sent  for  the  picture,  to  do  some  little  matter  of  finish 
which  had  been  left,  and,  to  put  an  end  to  foolish  cavil,  I 
determined  to  tell  him  of  M.'s  criticism,  but  how  to  do  it  with 
out  offending  him  was  the  question.  The  conversation  took  a 
turn  upon  the  excessive  attention  which  some  minds  pay  to 
the  minutiae  of  costume,  etc.  This  gave  the  opportunity  de 
sired.  *  By  the  way,'  said  I, '  do  you  know  that  somebody  has 
remarked  that  you  have  put  the  buttons  on  the  wrong  side 
of  that  coat?'  '  Have  I?'  said  Stuart.  '  Well,  thank  God! 
I  am  no  tailor.'  He  immediately  took  his  pencil  and  with  a 
stroke  drew  the  lapel  to  the  collar  of  the  coat  which  is  seen 

43 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  20-23 

there  at  present.  '  Now,'  said  Stuart,  *  it  is  a  double-breasted 
coat  and  is  all  right,  only  the  buttons  on  the  other  side  not 
being  seen.'  '  Ha !'  said  I,  *  you  are  the  prince  of  tailors, 
worthy  to  be  master  of  the  merchant  tailors'  guild.' 

"  Stuart  had  all  forms  in  his  mind,  and  he  painted  hands 
and  other  details  from  an  image  in  his  thoughts,  not  requiring 
an  original  model  before  him.  There  was  no  sitting  for  that 
big  law  book  that,  in  the  picture,  I  am  holding.  The  coat  was 
entirely  Stuart's  device.  I  never  wore  one  of  that  colour  (a 
near  approach  to  a  claret  colour) .  He  thought  it  would  suit 
the  complexion. 

"  On  the  day  that  I  was  sitting  to  him  the  second  time 
I  said  to  Stuart,  *  What  do  you  consider  the  most  character 
istic  feature  of  the  face?  You  have  already  shown  me  that 
the  eyes  are  not;  and  we  know  from  sculpture,  in  which  the 
eyes  are  wanting,  the  same  thing.'  Stuart  just  pressed  the 
end  of  his  pencil  against  the  tip  of  his  nose,  distorting  it 
oddly.  *  Ah,  I  see,  I  see,'  said  I."  2 

At  that  time  Mr.  Binney  and  several  of  his  friends  lived 
at  Mrs.  Smith's  boarding-house,  a  wedge-shaped  house  (an 
unusual  structure  in  rectangular  Philadelphia)  at  the  corner 
of  Walnut  and  Dock  Streets.  Professor  Silliman,  the  cele 
brated  chemist,  has  left  a  record  of  their  life  there  as  he  saw 
it  in  1802  and  1803. 

"  This  house  attracted  a  select  class  of  gentlemen.  The 
Connecticut  members  of  Congress  resorted  to  it,  I  believe, 
while  the  government  was  in  Philadelphia;  and  after  its 
removal,  as  they  were  passing  to  and  from  Washington,  it 
was  a  temporary  resting-place.  Other  gentlemen  of  intelli 
gence  were  among  its  inmates,  and  several  of  them,  being 
men  of  great  promise,  were  then  rising  into  the  early  stages 


2  Life  and  Works  of  Gilbert  Stuart,  p.  139. 
44 


1800-03]     FIRST    YEARS    AT    THE    BAR 

of  that  eminence  which  they  attained  in  subsequent  years. 
Among  them  were  Horace  Binney,  Charles  Chauncey,  Elihu 
Chauncey,  Robert  Hare,  John  Wallace  and  his  brother,  and 
as  frequent  visitors  John  Sergeant  and  George  Vaux.  There 
were  occasionally  other  gentlemen,  but  those  I  have  men 
tioned  were  our  stars.  .  .  .  Enos  Bronson,  of  Connecticut, 
and  Yale  College,  was  also  of  our  number.  He  edited  the 
United  States  Gazette  with  much  talent. 

"  The  gentlemen  whom  I  have  mentioned,  with  their 
friends  and  visitors  that  were  attracted  by  them  to  the  house, 
formed  a  brilliant  circle  of  high  conversational  powers.  They 
were  educated  men,  of  elevated  position  in  society,  and  their 
manners  were  in  harmony  with  their  training.  Rarely  in  my 
progress  in  life  have  I  met  with  a  circle  of  gentlemen  who 
surpassed  them  in  courteous  manners,  in  brilliant  intelligence, 
sparkling  sallies  of  wit  and  pleasantry,  and  cordial  greeting 
both  among  themselves  and  with  friends  and  strangers  who 
were  occasionally  introduced." 

The  style  of  living  differed  somewhat  from  what  Silli- 
man  was  used  to  in  Connecticut,  for  he  went  on  to  say,  "  Mrs. 
Smith,  a  high-spirited  and  efficient  woman,  was  liberal  almost 
to  a  fault,  and  furnished  her  table  even  luxuriously.  Our 
habits  were,  indeed,  in  other  respects  far  from  those  of  tee 
totalers.  No  person  of  that  description  was  in  our  circle.  On 
the  contrary,  agreeably  to  the  custom  which  prevailed  in  the 
boarding-houses  of  our  cities  half  a  century  ago,  every  gen 
tleman  furnished  himself  with  a  decanter  of  wine,  usually  a 
metallic  or  other  label  being  attached  to  the  neck,  and  bearing 
the  name  of  the  owner.  Healths  were  drunk,  especially  if 
stranger  guests  were  present,  and  a  glass  or  two  was  not  con 
sidered  excessive, — sometimes  two  or  three,  according  to  cir 
cumstances.  Porter  or  other  strong  beer  was  used  at  table  as 
a  beverage.  As  Robert  Hare  was  a  brewer  of  porter  and 

45 


HORACE    BINNEY  [.Ex.  20-24 

was  one  of  our  number,  his  porter  was  in  high  request;  and, 
indeed,  it  was  of  an  excellent  quality.  I  do  not  remember 
any  water-drinker  at  our  table  or  in  our  house,  for  total  ab 
stinence  was  not  thought  of,  except,  perhaps,  by  some  wise 
and  far-seeing  Franklin."  3 

An  incident  of  Mr.  Binney's  life  about  this  period,  re 
called  in  his  letters,  was  his  meeting  Humboldt  when  the 
latter  visited  Philadelphia  in  1804. 

"  I  cannot  forget  an  evening  when  the  late  Dr.  Benjamin 
Rush,  then  my  neighbour,  asked  me,  then  quite  a  young  man, 
to  join  two  or  three  of  his  friends,  to  meet  Von  Humboldt 
and  General  Miranda  at  his  temperate  supper-table.  I  can 
never  forget  the  occasion,  and  I  still  retain  parts  of  the 
interesting  remarks  of  Von  Humboldt,  in  his  replies  to  Dr. 
Rush's  queries.  The  conversation  was  principally  between 
the  two.  I  was  altogether  a  listener.  Dr.  Rush's  queries  gen 
erally  were  directed  to  points  connected  with  his  own  profes 
sion,  the  character  and  cure  of  diseases  among  the  natives 
(aboriginals)  of  certain  parts  of  South  America  which  Hum 
boldt  had  explored,  the  differences  between  the  level  and 
mountain  ranges,  the  phenomena  of  parturition  (accouche 
ment),  gestation,  etc.,  the  general  treatment  of  fevers, 
wounds,  etc.,  and  the  peculiarities  in  physiology  and  pathol 
ogy  in  certain  particulars.  I  recollect  also  some  interesting 
inquiries  into  the  sources  from  which  Von  Humboldt  had  ob 
tained  the  best  instruments  for  philosophical  experiment  or 
observation  on  his  travels, — thermometers,  barometers,  meters 
of  every  kind,  magnifiers,  telescopic  and  microscopic,  quad 
rants,  sextants,  etc.  I  should  say  Dr.  Rush  pumped  him 
thoroughly;  but  in  truth  there  was  no  pumping  about  it. 
Von  Humboldt  seemed  to  be  a  great  reservoir,  high  up  above 


aLife  of  Benjamin  Silliman,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  by  George  P.  Fisher,  vol.  i.  p.  98. 

46 


1800-04]     FIRST    YEARS    AT    THE    BAR 

all,  and  the  head  so  strong  that  as  soon  as  the  cock  was  turned, 
out  came  the  answers  in  a  full,  gushing  stream,  as  if  it  was  so 
full  of  that  matter  that  there  could  be  room  for  nothing  else. 
Yet  it  was  the  same  on  every  question  or  remark  that  was  put 
or  made  to  him.  His  accent  was  very  decided,  but  his  utter 
ances  voluble  and  full.  He  charmed  us  immensely.  I  have 
often  thought  of  it,  since,  as  the  first  page  of  his  Kosmos. 
Never  at  a  loss.  No  question  new  to  him.  No  remark  that 
was  not  enlarged  or  improved  by  him.  I  carried  home  a 
much  larger  store  from  him  than  from  any  one  I  have  listened 
to  for  three  hours.  I  never  saw  him  afterwards,  but  this 
soiree  has  given  zest  to  all  that  I  have  heard  of  him  or  read 
in  his  works  since."  4 

On  March  13,  1802,  the  Law  Library  Association  of 
Philadelphia  was  founded,  which  twenty-five  years  later  be 
came  the  present  Law  Association.  Mr.  Binney  was  one  of 
the  seventy-two  signers  of  the  original  articles  of  association, 
and  bore  his  share  of  the  practical  work  of  the  society.  In 
the  same  year,  in  right  of  descent,  he  qualified  as  a  member 
of  the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati. 

Shortly  before  the  Harvard  Commencement  of  1800, 
when,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  day  (and  which  pre 
vailed  for  about  seventy  years  longer)  all  the  graduates  of 
three  years  standing  received  the  degree  of  M.A.  without 
further  examination.  President  Kirkland  offered  Mr.  Bin 
ney  the  Master's  Oration,  in  recognition  of  his  having  at 
tained  at  graduation  a  rank  which  would  under  ordinary 
circumstances  have  entitled  him  to  the  Valedictory;  but  he 
declined  the  honour,  finding  it  impracticable  to  leave  Phila 
delphia  just  then.  His  decision  was  probably  due  to  the 
feeling  that  having  undertaken  to  seek  an  opening  at  the 
bar  in  Philadelphia,  he  could  not  afford  to  be  absent  at  all, 

4  Letter  to  Dr.  F.  Lieber,  January  26,  1860. 

47 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Ex.  23-24 

even  for  a  short  time.  This  certainly  was  his  view  a  year 
later,  when  he  wrote:  "  Absolute  business  does  not  chain  me 
to  Philadelphia,  'tis  true,  and  I  might  leave  without  material 
detriment  at  the  moment,  but  a  young  man's  passage  here 
is  uphill.  I  have  very  many  before,  and  some  few  behind 
me,  but  this  latter  number  must  not  be  diminished.  They 
will  take  my  place  if  I  run  to  gather  flowers  on  the  moun 
tain's  side,  or  rest  one  moment  from  my  upward  path." 

Again,  in  the  summer  of  1803,  he  wrote :  "  My  little  busi 
ness  is  not  to  be  seriously  deranged  by  a  short  absence,  it  is 
true ;  but  in  September  we  have  a  term  of  three  weeks  during 
which  I  am  chained  to  the  desk  as  reporter,  and  in  October 
for  the  Circuit  Court  I  am  engaged  in  two  causes,  one  of  vast 
importance,  which  in  all  probability  will  be  tried." 

This  extract  shows  that  Mr.  Binney  had  some  experience 
in  reporting  before  he  became  reporter  to  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  State  in  1807.  The  cause  which  was  "  of  vast  impor 
tance"  in  the  eyes  of  the  enthusiastic  young  lawyer  was  ap 
parently  postponed,  and  he  eventually  even  found  some  good 
reason  for  a  visit  to  New  England  in  October,  1803.  The 
reluctance  to  leave  Philadelphia  may  have  been  partly  due  to 
the  presence  of  Miss  Elizabeth  Cox  (the  youngest  daughter 
of  Colonel  John  Cox,  of  Bloomsbury  Court,  near  Trenton, 
New  Jersey,  an  officer  of  distinction,  who  had  died  in  1793), 
whose  name  is  mentioned  in  the  same  letter,  and  to  whom  he 
must,  about  that  time,  have  become  engaged.  They  were 
married  on  April  3,  1804,  and  their  devoted  attachment  to 
each  other  remained  unclouded  throughout  a  married  life  of 
more  than  sixty  years. 

Very  shortly  after  his  marriage  the  case  of  Perry  vs. 
Cramfnond,5  apparently  the  case  "  of  vast  importance,"  was 


6 1  Wash.  C.  C.,  100. 

48 


1803-04]     FIRST    YEARS    AT    THE    BAR 

tried  before  Judge  Washington.  Mr.  Binney  was  associated 
with  Messrs.  Ingersoll  and  Lewis  for  the  plaintiff,  Messrs. 
Rawle  and  Edward  Tilghman  being  against  them.  As  might 
be  judged  from  this  array  of  counsel,  the  suit  involved  some 
knotty  questions  of  commercial  law,  but  the  verdict  was  for 
the  defendant,  a  result  which  must  have  made  the  young 
lawyer's  future  look  no  less  doubtful  than  before.  Even 
about  two  years  later  the  prospect  was  still  so  poor  for  the 
junior  bar  that  some  of  them  held  a  meeting  at  Mr.  Binney's 
office,  when  it  was  proposed  to  abandon  the  law  altogether, 
and  form  a  settlement  in  the  woods  of  Luzerne  County.  The 
intention  may  not  have  been  very  seriously  entertained,  but 
it  showed  that  the  young  men  of  that  day  were  heartily  de 
sirous  of  a  strenuous  life,  as  well  as  in  friendly  sympathy 
with  each  other. 

In  spite  of  his  lack  of  opportunity,  for  several  years, 
to  distinguish  himself  at  the  bar,  he  had  undoubtedly  won 
a  reputation  for  ability  and  high  character,  for  in  1806, 
when  only  twenty-six  years  old,  he  was  chosen  a  trustee  of 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  and  secretary  of  the  Penn 
sylvania  Society  of  the  Cincinnati.  He  held  the  latter  office 
until  1820,  and  the  former  until  a  later  date. 

By  the  time  Horace  Binney  attained  his  majority,  on  the 
fourth  day  of  the  nineteenth  century,  his  political  views  were 
fully  formed,  and  while  they  may  have  become  tempered  by 
the  riper  judgment  of  increasing  years,  deepened,  intensified 
perhaps  at  times,  they  never  substantially  changed.  He  was 
from  the  first  a  Federalist,  and  he  never  pretended  to  belong 
to  any  other  party.6  A  strong,  stable,  and  orderly  govern 
ment  he  thought  absolutely  essential  to  the  preservation  of 


•In  his  third  pamphlet  on  the  Habeas  Corpus,  written  early  in  1865,  he 
said,  "  I  do  not  assume  the  name  of  any  living  party,  but  that  of  the  country." 
4  49 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^BT.  21 


liberty,  whose  worst  enemy  was  unreasoning  popular  preju 
dice,  especially  when  manifested  as  party  spirit.  He  held 
that  the  Constitution  was  a  surrender  by  the  people  of  a 
definite  portion  of  their  power,  the  extent  of  the  grant  being 
gathered  from  a  fair  interpretation  of  the  language  em 
ployed,  and  from  the  objects  for  which  the  Union  existed, 
and  the  grant  itself  one  which  should  be  maintained  even 
against  all  illegal  attempts  of  the  people  to  resume  the  power 
thus  granted.  Under  the  Constitution,  moreover,  the  United 
States  constituted  a  nation,  one  as  to  its  own  people,  and 
separate  as  to  all  other  nations.  Fidelity,  obedience,  and 
submission  to  the  constitution  and  laws  of  a  State  were  re 
quired  of  its  citizens;  but  allegiance,  in  the  proper  sense  of 
the  term,  was  due  to  the  nation  alone. 

The  Federal  party  was,  in  his  judgment,  the  one  party 
which  was  thoroughly  faithful  to,  and  conservative  of,  the 
Constitution,  upholding  it  in  the  spirit  in  which  it  had  been 
framed  and  adopted,  preventing  any  one  of  the  departments 
of  the  government  from  usurping  the  functions  of  the  others, 
and  maintaining  the  supremacy  of  the  national  government, 
within  its  constitutional  sphere,  over  those  of  the  several 
States.  .Great,  therefore,  was  his  regret,  and  serious  his  fore 
bodings  for  the  future,  when  the  returns  of  the  election  of 
1800,  at  first  favourable  to  the  Federalists,  finally  showed  a 
majority  against  them.  It  was  small  consolation  that  the 
equality  of  Jefferson  and  Burr  made  them  competitors  for 
the  support  of  the  Federalist  electors,  and  while  Mr.  Binney 
must  have  approved  Hamilton's  course  in  securing  that  sup 
port  for  Jefferson,  as  the  less  dangerous  of  the  two,  his  own 
feeling  towards  Jefferson,  and  all  distinctly  Jeffersonian 
views  or  doctrines,  was  never  anything  but  abhorrence. 

The  fact  that  Mr.  Binney  became  a  voter  just  after  the 
Federal  party  began  to  lose  its  hold  on  the  people,  so  that 

50 


1801]        FIRST    YEARS    AT    THE    BAR 

during  the  first  years  of  his  manhood  his  vote  was  always 
cast  in  an  attempt  to  stem  the  ever-increasing  and  finally 
overwhelming  Democratic  tide,  never  for  a  moment  weak 
ened  his  own  federalism.  Very  possibly  it  may  have  served 
to  intensify  it.  No  man  was  less  of  a  trimmer  or  more  thor 
oughly  sincere  in  his  political  views,  which  he  had  not  taken 
up  lightly  or  in  haste,  but  seriously,  upon  reflection,  giving 
to  political  doctrines  and  principles  the  same  careful  study 
which  he  gave  to  those  of  the  law.  The  adverse  decision  of 
a  court,  if  he  believed  it  really  unsound,  never  controlled  his 
judgment,  and  for  the  adverse  decision  of  a  popular  ma 
jority  he  had  still  less  regard.  To  him,  as  a  young  man, 
a  majority,  except  in  some  local  contests,  always  meant  a 
majority  on  the  wrong  side,  and  "  the  worship  of  the  god 
majority,"  as  he  expressed  it,  was  at  all  times  peculiarly 
distasteful  to  him. 

His  admiration  for  Hamilton  dated,  as  already  noticed, 
from  boyhood ;  by  the  time  he  reached  manhood  it  had  only 
strengthened ;  and  it  never,  throughout  his  long  life,  suffered 
the  slightest  diminution.  Washington  he  held  to  be  "  above 
exception  or  comparison,  as  the  man  for  the  day  and  the 
country;  but  as  a  statesman  no  one  equalled  [Hamilton]  in 
his  work  for  the  Constitution  and  the  rising  government."  7 
Adams,  on  the  other  hand,  he  held  to  be  mainly  responsible 


7  Letter  to  J.  C.  Hamilton,  December  29,  1859. 

"  I  think,  and  have  for  many  years  thought,  that  Hamilton  was  and  remains 
the  first  statesman  in  our  country,  perhaps  not  surpassed  anywhere;  of  extraor 
dinary  maturity  in  very  early  life,  of  singular  finish  in  his  accomplishments  for 
such  a  post  either  in  war  or  peace,  and  as  honest  as  Pericles;  having  some,  though 
not  all,  his  many  sides.  What  would  I  not  have  given  to  have  had  him  among  us 
before  and  during  our  great  troubles,  and  most  particularly  for  the  regulation 
of  our  finances,  in  which  department  he  was  facile  princeps?  I  ought  to  say  that 
with  as  many  opportunities  as  Pericles  had  to  enrich  himself,  he  died  as  poor." 
(Letter  to  Sir  J.  T.  Coleridge,  August  25,  1864.) 

51 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  21 

for  the  downfall  of  the  Federal  party.  He  conceded  the 
latter's  perfect  integrity,  and  his  immense  services  during  the 
Revolution,  but  condemned  that  vanity  and  jealousy  which 
made  him,  as  President,  both  weak  and  dangerous,  and  finally 
precipitated  his  fall.  This  opinion  Mr.  Binney  formed  at  the 
time,  "  as  early  as  the  first  year  of  this  century."  8 

It  is  difficult  for  the  men  of  the  twentieth  century  to 
understand  the  intensity  of  the  distrust  and  dislike,  even 
hatred,  with  which  perfectly  disinterested  men  viewed  the 
doctrines  of  their  political  opponents  a  hundred  years  ago. 
In  1800  the  government  under  the  Constitution  was  still  an 
experiment,  the  future  of  which  was  far  from  certain.  The 
Democrats  sincerely  believed  that  the  Constitution  was  in 
tended  by  the  Federalists  to  pave  the  way  for  the  establish 
ment  of  an  aristocracy,  if  not  a  monarchy,  and  Hamilton, 
who  had  striven  and  fought  for  popular  liberty  with  all  the 
energy  of  his  strong  character,  was,  ridiculous  as  it  may  seem, 
execrated  as  a  monarchist.  To  the  mind  of  the  Federalists, 
on  the  other  hand,  Jefferson's  State  rights  doctrines  directly 
attacked  the  bond  of  federal  union,  and  tended  to  a  reversion 
to  the  deplorably  weak  government  of  the  confederation,  if 
not  to  utter  disintegration,  while  his  excessive  laudation  of 
the  people  appeared  to  make  all  public  officers  the  mere 
puppets  of  an  unreasoning  mob. 

Federalist  dislike  of  Jefferson  and  his  followers  was  in 
tensified  by  his  sympathy  with  the  French  Revolution,  even 
at  the  time  of  its  excesses,  and  by  his  apparent  wish  to  dis 
seminate  in  the  United  States  the  same  doctrines  which  had 
inflamed  the  mind  of  France.  The  conditions  of  the  two 
countries  were,  it  is  true,  utterly  different,  but  the  guillotine 
had  not  been  employed  only  against  oppressors;  many  of 


8  Letter  to  J.  W.  Wallace,  September  25,  1871. 
52 


1801]        FIRST    YEARS    AT    THE    BAR 

the  truest,  most  liberal-minded  patriots  in  France  had  been 
dragged  to  the  scaffold;  and  the  Federalists  felt  that  the 
doctrines  which  masqueraded  under  the  false  title  of  "  Lib 
erty,  Equality,  and  Fraternity"  were  essentially  pernicious 
and  were  not  to  be  endured  in  any  country. 

Another  factor  was  Jefferson's  disloyalty  to  Washing 
ton,  a  course  all  the  more  condemned  by  the  Federalists  be 
cause  of  its  having  been  to  some  extent  concealed.  The  man 
who,  as  a  Cabinet  officer,  covertly  fomented  attacks  upon  his 
own  chief  was  in  their  eyes  little  better  than  a  traitor.  His 
course  in  this  respect,  and  his  French  leanings  also,  may  have 
been  exaggerated  by  his  political  opponents,  but  whether 
wholly  justifiable  or  not,  the  hostility  to  him  seems  to  have 
been  something  without  a  parallel  at  the  present  day. 

While  Mr.  Binney's  mind  was  essentially  non-partisan,  it 
could  not  help  being  affected  by  the  spirit  of  the  day,  and 
to  that  spirit  may  fairly  be  traced  a  part,  at  least,  of  his 
abhorrence  of  everything  Jeff ersonian.  Jefferson,  he  once 
wrote,  "  was  the  devil  in  our  Paradise;  with  his  nature  and 
French  revolutionary  training,  he  could  not  help  being  so." 
After  the  Federalist  downfall  no  administration  commanded 
Mr.  Binney's  thorough  confidence,  and  the  more  any  party  or 
any  administration  was  infected  with  the  Jeffersonian  heresy, 
the  more  he  distrusted  it.  Though  ready  to  concede  that 
"  God  fulfils  himself  in  many  ways,"  he  believed  thoroughly 
in  "  the  old  order"  of  Federalism,  and  would  scarcely  have 
admitted  that  that  particular  "  good  custom"  could  under  any 
conceivable  circumstances  "  corrupt  the  world."  Had  he 
lived  until  the  elections  of  1884-1892,  he  would  unquestion 
ably  have  supported  Mr.  Cleveland,  simply  because  his  own 
views  were  much  more  nearly  represented  by  Cleveland  than 
by  either  Blaine  or  Harrison;  but  he  would  have  held  that 
Cleveland's  ideal  of  a  democracy  "  untempted  by  clamour, 

53 


HORACE    BINNEY  [MT.  26-27 

unmoved  by  the  gusts  of  popular  passion,"  involved  a  con 
tradiction  in  terms,  democracy  being  to  him  the  very  exponent 
of  clamour  and  popular  passion. 

Like  his  legal  preceptor,  Jared  Ingersoll,  Mr.  Binney 
"  had,  at  no  time  of  his  life,  a  warm  predilection  for  politics." 
Mr.  Ingersoll's  influence  and  example  may  possibly  have  had 
something  to  do  with  this,  and  "  the  great  subversion  of 
1801"  was  naturally  disheartening  to  a  convinced  Federal 
ist.  Still,  he  had  no  wish  to  evade  any  of  the  duties  of  a 
citizen,  and  in  1806  he  became  a  candidate  for  the  Legisla 
ture  on  what  would  now  be  called  a  "  fusion  ticket"  of  Fed 
eralists  and  Independent  Democrats,  or,  as  their  opponents 
called  them,  Quids.9  His  friends  Wallace  and  Chauncey 
seem  to  have  been  active  in  bringing  about  the  nomination, 
and  a  letter  of  the  latter  states  clearly  the  conditions  upon 
which  Mr.  Binney  would  consent  to  serve.  "  Your  advice 
to  Binney  as  to  duty,  and  his  own  judgment,  are  perfectly 
right.  He  must  go  like  a  gentleman,  and  with  true  men,  or 
you  and  I  know  perfectly  well  that  he  will  not  go  at  all." 

With  the  reckless  disregard  of  truth  shown  by  the  "  yel 
low  journals"  of  every  age,  Duane's  Aurora  charged  Mr. 
Binney  with  being  "  an  apostate  Democrat  of  1797."  10  In 
1797  he  was  but  seventeen  years  old,  and  in  point  of  fact  did 
not  return  to  Philadelphia  until  after  the  election.  More 
over,  he  had  apparently,  even  at  that  early  age,  adopted  the 
Federalist  principles,  from  which  he  never  swerved.  The 
utter  falsity  of  Duane's  slur  was  probably  well  understood, 


8  Under  John  Randolph's  leadership  these  Independents  were  recognized  as 
an  element  distinct  from  the  regular  Jeffersonian  organization,  a  sort  of  third 
party,  a  tertium  quid.  Hence  the  name. 

The  full  title  of  the  then  Democratic  party  was  Democratic  Republican, 
and  the  members  were  called  Republicans  and  Democrats  indifferently. 

"Aurora,  September  10,  1806. 

54 


1806-07]     FIRST    YEARS    AT    THE    BAR 


for  among  the  five  successful  candidates  Mr.  Binney  stood 
at  the  head  of  the  poll,  receiving  2056  votes.11 

"  Some  of  the  occurrences  in  the  Legislature  while  I  was 
there,"  wrote  Mr.  Binney,  "  were  of  considerable  interest. 
Chief  Justice  McKean,  who  had  been  carried  into  the  office 
of  governor  in  1799  upon  the  shoulders  of  Jeffersonian 
Democracy,  and  had  slashed  away  famously  in  his  first  days 
against  Federalists  and  apostate  Whigs,  was  fain,  at  the  end 
of  his  second  term,  to  rely  upon  them  for  his  re-election ;  and, 
with  their  since  proverbial  ductility,  they  united  with  a  rem 
nant  of  his  former  friends  and  did  re-elect  him.  The  Legis 
lature,  however,  contained  a  majority  of  his  alienated  friends, 
who,  having  once  been  sweet,  had  become  by  fermentation 
the  sourest  of  enemies,  and  they  resorted  to  the  customary 
methods  of  annoyance.  His  defence  and  the  defence  of  his 
recent  measures,  against  the  opposition  of  Findlay,  after 
wards  governor,  and  Dr.  Leib,  fell  in  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  to  Charles  Smith  (afterwards,  but  not  till  some 
years  afterwards,  Judge  Smith,  of  Lancaster,  a  son-in-law  of 
Judge  Yeates)  and  myself.  It  was  amusing  enough — for 
both  Smith  and  myself  were  then  and  ever  afterwards  Fed 
eralists — not  to  be  mistaken.  We  did  our  duty,  however,  not 
from  love  of  McKean,  but  from  scorn  of  his  former  politics ; 
and  both  of  us  were  asked  in  debate  by  Dr.  Leib  whether  the 
vacant  slippers  of  a  deceased  judge  were  not  in  our  view.  I 
could  say  for  myself,  and  can  still  say,  that  I  never  desired 
to  walk  in  any  other  man's  shoes  than  my  own." 

One  of  the  measures  passed  at  this  session  was  the  arbi 
tration  law,  which  Mr.  Binney  opposed,  having  no  confidence 
in  schemes  for  making  every  man  his  own  lawyer.  This  was 
probably  the  bill  in  regard  to  which  the  governor  sent  the 


11  True  American,  October  16,  1806. 
55 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JEx.  27 

Secretary  of  the  Commonwealth,  Mr.  Thompson,  to  confer 
with  Mr.  Binney  and  to  say  that  he  (the  governor)  thought 
it  a  foolish  bill,  but  did  not  see  any  great  objection  to  it.  Mr. 
Binney  replied  that  such  a  reason  for  signing  the  bill  might 
satisfy  some  governors,  but  that  he  thought  it  would  be  too 
bad  for  one  who  would  be  recollected  as  a  judge  long  after 
he  was  forgotten  as  a  governor  to  countenance  such  a 
measure. 

A  letter  of  March  13,  1807,  to  Mr.  Wallace  shows  the 
keen  interest  which  Mr.  Binney  took  in  the  active  work  of 
the  Legislature,  in  spite  of  his  distaste  for  public  life. 

I  dreamt  you  were  dead  of  a  dysentery,  and  your  letter  joined 
issue  with  the  dream,  and  non-suited  it.  ...  Although  I  am  still 
raggy  about  the  muscles  and  my  throat  as  tender  as  my  eye,  I  am  so 
much  my  own  man  that  I  have  had  great  satisfaction  in  speaking 
against  the  Address  to  the  President,  and  upon  principle,  as  all  our 
side  of  the  House  say,  getting  the  better  of  the  addressers.  I  yes 
terday  took  some  pains  to  teach  the  President  better  manners  than 
to  lay  out  a  road  through  Pennsylvania  to  the  exclusive  benefit  of 
Chillicothe  in  Ohio  and  the  State  of  Maryland,  and  we  triumphed  by 
60  over  21 ;  we  fixed  the  points  thro'  which  it  shall  pass.  Third 
reading  of  the  bill  this  morning.  [(In  the  margin.)  This  bill  has 
just  passed.  Yeas,  80;  nays,  1.  lo  Tri.]  .  .  . 

What  the  fate  of  turnpikes  will  be  I  cannot  tell;  the  resolu 
tion  was  adopted  and  a  committee  appointed  to  bring  in  a  bill,  of 
which  committee  I  am  chairman,  and  shall  draw  the  bill  to-day.  The 
bank  I  think  will  not  go  this  session;  and  I  have  not  the  least  right 
to  be  sanguine  with  respect  to  the  success  of  the  insurance  companies. 
If  they  do  not  pass  in  ten  days,  then  they  are  gone  for  the  present 
session. 


56 


1807]       ACTIVE    PROFESSIONAL   LIFE 


IV 

ACTIVE    PROFESSIONAL    LIFE 
1807-1815 

f  I  "MIE  close  of  the  legislative  session  of  1806-07  marked 
the  beginning  of  Mr.  Binney's  active  practice  at 
the  bar.  Up  to  that  time,  he  once  wrote,  "  I  con 
tinued  an  unrewarded  drudge,"  but  after  that  "  the  door  was 
opened  wide  to  me  at  once,  and  I  entered."  Aside  from  what 
general  reputation  he  had  acquired  as  a  member  of  the  Legis 
lature,  his  charge  of  certain  memorials  from  the  Chamber 
of  Commerce,  and  one  for  the  incorporation  of  the  United 
States  Insurance  Company,  had  made  his  abilities  known  to 
merchants  and  underwriters.  Perhaps  also,  to  quote  his  own 
words,  "  the  time  had  come  when  an  industrious  young  man 
of  fair  character  and  capacity  might  generally  expect  to 
come  in  as  a  reaper,  after  having  been  a  patient  gleaner  only 
for  six  or  seven  years."  He  was  further  aided  by  his  Re 
ports,  begun  in  1807  at  the  invitation 1  of  Chief  Justice 
Tilghman,  who,  when  for  a  short  time  president  of  the  Com 
mon  Pleas  of  Philadelphia,  had  suggested  his  reporting  the 
decisions  of  that  tribunal.  Tilghman's  translation  to  the 
Supreme  Court  gave  wider  scope  for  carrying  out  the  plan, 
which,  in  its  fulfilment,  not  only  increased  the  reporter's 
reputation  at  the  bar,  but  has  given  to  the  profession  a  series 

*At  that  time,  and  until  1845,  the  work  of  the  gentlemen  who  successively 
reported  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Pennsylvania  was  an  independent 
undertaking,  like  any  other  literary  work.  In  1845  the  office  of  State  Reporter 
was  established,  to  be  held  for  five  years,  and  in  1878  a  salary  was  attached  to  the 
office  and  the  Reporter  deprived  of  all  interest  in  the  sale  of  the  books. 

57 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^ET.  27-28 


of  volumes  generally  conceded  to  be  unsurpassed  of  their 
kind.2  The  statements  of  the  facts  involved  and  the  argu 
ments  presented,  clear  and  concise,  yet  complete  and  emi 
nently  fair,  form  a  proper  introduction  to  the  opinions  with 
out  trenching  on  their  province,  while  the  faithful  analyses 
show  at  a  glance  the  reporter's  thorough  grasp  of  each  case. 
To  make  the  cases  of  value  as  precedents  required,  in  his 
opinion,  great  care  and  accuracy  in  reporting  the  arguments 
of  counsel,  and  he  was  wholly  opposed  to  that  school  of 
reporting  which  either  reduces  them  to  a  confused  list  of 
citations  or  omits  them  altogether.  Careful,  even  elaborate, 
reporting  was  peculiarly  desirable  at  that  time,  as  even  the 
English  reports  were  comparatively  few,  and  American 
authorities  still  more  rare,  so  that  every  new  decision  was 
far  more  of  an  addition  to  the  stock  of  precedents  than  is 
ordinarily  now  the  case.  Tilghman's  carefully  reasoned 
opinions,  moreover  (and  for  the  first  ten  years  or  more  of 
his  chief  -justiceship  he  delivered  an  opinion  in  every  case 
but  five),  were  well  worth  all  the  labour  which  the  reporter 
expended  upon  the  setting  in  which  he  offered  them  to  the 
profession;  and  fortunately  the  condition  of  the  law-book 
market  assured  a  fairly  remunerative  compensation  3  for  such 
work.  The  six  volumes  contain  some  cases  decided  before 


2  In  McLaughlin  vs.  Scot   (1  Binn.,  61)   it  was  held  that  arbitrators  could 
allow  costs,  although  the  statute  appeared  to   forbid  such  allowance  where  the 
judgment  was  for  less  than  fifty  pounds.     This  rather  anomalous  decision  was 
referred  to  in  Stuart  vs.  Harkins   (3  Binn.,  321),  and  Mr.  Binney  inserted  two 
foot-notes  in  regard  to  what  had  taken  place  when  the  former  decision  was  ren 
dered.     In  Lewis  vs.  England    (4  Binn.,  5)   the  point  came  directly  before  the 
court,  and  McLaughlin  vs.  Scot  was  overruled ;    but  Tilghman,  C.  J.,  said,  "  From 
the  known  accuracy  of  the  reporter,  I  make  no  doubt  but  that  what  fell  from  the 
court  is  faithfully  set  down."     This  is  believed  to  be  the  only  instance  in  which 
the  accuracy  of  Mr.  Binney's  report  of  any  case  was  questioned  for  a  moment,  if 
it  was  really  questioned  at  all.    Certainly  the  chief  justice  did  not  question  it. 

3  About  two  thousand  dollars  a  volume. 

58 


1807-08]     ACTIVE    PROFESSIONAL    LIFE 

1807,  and  all  the  important  decisions  of  the  court  down  to 
September,  1814,  when  Mr.  Binney's  full  employment  at  the 
bar  left  him  no  time  for  reporting  according  to  the  standard 
he  approved.    In  1808  he  wrote,  anonymously,  the  American 
notes  to  Kyd's  treatise  on  Awards. 

Though  the  start  had  been  fairly  made,  the  race  was  still 
to  be  won.  "  For  some  years,"  he  wrote,  "  my  contemporaries 
and  I  had  to  work  for  our  seniors,  who  were  retained  in  all 
cases  of  importance.  It  was  our  duty  to  prepare  the  plead 
ings  and  evidence,  to  put  all  in  order  for  trial,  in  fine,  to  be 
fag,  as  the  Eton  boys  term  it,  to  the  older  classes.  This  did 
us  no  harm." 

Mr.  Binney's  first  argument  in  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Pennsylvania  was  in  the  spring  of  1808,  in  an  unimportant 
suit  for  damages  for  the  removal  of  a  fence,  turning  on  the 
question  of  the  conclusiveness  of  the  regulator's  lines.4  He 
had  won  a  verdict  for  the  plaintiff  at  nisi  prius  against  a 
rather  adverse  charge,  but  was  unsuccessful  on  the  motion 
for  a  new  trial.  His  first  important  case  was  Gibson  vs. 
Philadelphia  Insurance  Company,5  decided  on  December  24, 

1808,  though  argued  several  months  before.    His  connection 
with  the  cause  is  best  stated  in  his  own  words. 

"  More  than  fifty  years  ago  Samuel  W.  Fisher,  the  presi 
dent  of  the  Philadelphia  Insurance  Company,  came  one 
morning  into  my  small  office,  then  having  abundant  room 
for  all  my  visitors,  and  gave  me  a  retainer  to  argue  the  case 
of  Gibson  against  that  company.  Mr.  Gibson,  the  plaintiff, 
who  was  a  member  of  the  bar,  and  my  master  in  the  law,  Mr. 
Ingersoll,  were  to  argue  it  against  me.  The  question  re 
garded  the  proper  mode  of  adjusting  a  particular  average 


Godshall  vs.  Marian,  1  Binn.,  352. 
1  Binn.,  405. 

59 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  28 

under  a  clause  in  a  respondentia  bond;  and  it  was  new  and 
not  without  difficulty.  It  came  before  the  court  upon  excep 
tions  to  a  report  of  award  under  the  Act  of  1803,  made  by 
Edward  Tilghman,  with  the  concurrence  of  another  member 
of  the  bar,  against  the  opinion  of  the  third  referee,  who  was 
also  a  member  of  the  bar;  and  it  turned  altogether  upon 
principles  of  commercial  law.  I  examined  the  papers,  and 
then  said  to  Mr.  Fisher,  '  You  are  not  going  to  leave  me 
alone  in  this  cause.  You  know  who  is  against  me.'  *  I  know 
all  that,'  he  said,  '  but  I  will  not  retain  anybody  else.  Go  on 
and  make  the  best  of  it.'  After  the  award  was  confirmed,  I 
asked  Mr.  Fisher  why  he  had  been  so  short  in  refusing  me 
a  colleague.  He  replied  that  he  had  done  as  he  had  been  told 
to  do.  Mr.  Tilghman  had  told  him  to  retain  me,  and  had  said, 
*  Put  it  on  his  own  shoulders  and  make  him  carry  it.  It  will 
do  him  good.'  The  lesson  may  be  good  for  others.  The  most 
cheering  effect  of  it  to  myself  was  its  giving  me  the  assur 
ance  of  the  good  will  of  such  a  man  as  Edward  Tilghman."  6 
The  sketch  of  Mr.  Tilghman  from  which  the  above  is 
taken  breathes  a  spirit  of  lasting  gratitude  to  him  who  thus 
launched  the  young  lawyer  into  the  current  of  professional 
activity.  Gibson  vs.  Philadelphia  Insurance  Company  was 
a  most  fortunate  case  to  win  a  reputation  on  at  that  time, 
for  insurance  cases  were  probably  never  so  numerous  or  im 
portant  as  in  Philadelphia  from  1807  to  1817.  That  city  was 
the  first  commercial  port  in  the  United  States,  and  her  in 
surers  were  as  active  as  her  merchants.  At  the  time  of  the 
Berlin  decrees  and  the  British  orders  in  council,  Philadelphia 
policies  covered  innumerable  adventures  at  sea,  leading  to 
consequences  which  Mr.  Binney  thus  described:  "  The  stop 
pings,  seizures,  takings,  sequestrations,  condemnations,  all  of 


0  Leaders  of  the  Old  Bar,  p.  70. 
60 


1808]       ACTIVE    PROFESSIONAL    LIFE 

a  novel  kind,  unlike  anything  that  had  previously  occurred 
in  the  history  of  maritime  commerce, — the  consequence  of 
new  principles  of  national  law,  introduced  offensively  or  de 
fensively  by  the  belligerent  powers, — gave  an  unparalleled 
harvest  to  the  bar  of  Philadelphia.  No  persons  are  bound  to 
speak  better  of  Bonaparte  than  the  bar  of  this  city.  He  was, 
it  is  true,  a  great  buccaneer,  and  the  British  followed  his  ex 
ample  with  great  spirit  and  fidelity,  but  what  distinguished 
him  and  his  imitators  from  the  pirates  of  former  days  was 
the  felicitous  manner  in  which  he  first,  and  they  afterwards, 
resolved  every  piracy  into  some  principle  of  the  law  of  the 
nations,  newly  discovered  or  made  necessary  by  new  events; 
thus  covering  or  attempting  to  cover  the  stolen  property  by 
the  veil  of  the  law.  Had  he  stolen  it  and  called  it  a  theft,  not 
a  single  lawsuit  could  have  grown  out  of  it.  The  under 
writers  must  have  paid,  and  have  been  ruined  at  once  and 
outright.  But  he  stole  from  neutrals  and  called  it  lawful 
prize ;  and  this  led  to  such  a  crop  of  questions  as  nobody  but 
Bonaparte  was  capable  of  sowing  the  seeds  of.  For  while  he 
did  everything  that  was  abominable,  he  always  gave  a  reason, 
and  sometimes  a  specious  reason,  for  it,  and  kept  the  world 
of  the  law  inquiring  how  one  of  his  acts  and  his  reasons  for 
it  bore  upon  the  policy  of  insurance,  until  some  new  event 
occurred  to  make  all  that  they  had  previously  settled  of  little 
or  no  application.  In  many  instances  the  insurance  com 
panies  got  off;  in  others,  though  they  failed,  it  was  after  a 
protracted  campaign,  in  which,  contrary  to  campaigns  in 
general,  they  acquired  strength  to  bear  their  defeat.  In  the 
mean  time,  both  in  victory  and  defeat,  and  very  much  the 
same  in  both  events,  the  lawyers  had  their  reward." 

Mr.  Binney  had  been  chosen  a  director  of  the  first  United 
States  Bank  in  January,  1808,  an  important  trust  for  so 
young  a  man,  and  the  next  year  he  argued  United  States 

61 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  29 

Bank  vs.  De  Veaux,7  his  first  case  in  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States.  From  it  he  won  "  as  much  credit  as  a 
young  man  could  gain  in  association  with  elder  men,"  the 
point  on  which  the  case  was  gained  (the  right  of  a  corpora 
tion,  composed  of  citizens  of  one  State,  to  sue  a  citizen  of 
another  State  in  the  Federal  courts)  being  suggested  and 
elaborated  by  him  alone,  before  his  senior,  Mr.  Ingersoll,  was 
taken  into  the  case. 

On  the  journey,  by  coach,  to  argue  this  case,  the  first 
night  was  spent  at  the  Head  of  Elk,  where,  as  often  hap 
pened  at  that  day,  several  guests  had  beds  in  the  same  large 
room.  Mr.  William  Lewis,  who  was  an  incessant  smoker, 
was  one  of  the  room-mates,  and  after  the  last  candle  had  been 
extinguished  the  cigar  was  seen  alternately  firing  up  from  his 
pillow,  "  and  disappearing  in  the  darkness,  like  a  revolving 
light  on  the  coast."  8 

"  It  was  upon  this  visit  to  Washington,"  wrote  Mr.  Bin- 
ney,  "  that  I  saw  Mount  Vernon,  the  former  residence  of 
General  Washington.  Judge  Washington,  his  nephew  and 
then  proprietor  of  the  estate,  invited  six  or  eight  of  the  bench 
and  bar  to  pass  Sunday  with  him,  and  we  went  on  the  way 
to  Alexandria  on  Saturday  afternoon  to  pass  the  night.  On 
Sunday  the  Judge's  coach  and  four  came  for  us,  and,  with 
great  misgivings,  six  of  us,  and  none  of  them  very  light,  em 
barked  in  it.  The  coach  looked  as  if  it  might  have  been  an 
heir-loom  of  the  estate,  antique,  capacious,  and  shewy.  A 
black  coachman,  with  rather  incomplete  garments,  a  shabby 


7  5  Cranch,  6.     Oddly  enough,  as  Mr.  Binney  himself  noticed,  this  case  is 
referred  to  in  Louisville  R.  R.  Co.  vs.  Letson,  2  How.  (U.  S.),  497,  as  if  overruled 
by  that  decision,  which  gave  to  a  corporation,  for  the  purpose  of  suit  in  the  Fed 
eral  courts,  the  rights  of  a  citizen  of  the  State  of  its  incorporation,  irrespective 
of  the  actual  citizenship  of  its  members,  an  extension  of  the  doctrine  of  the  earlier 
case,  but  entirely  consistent  with  it. 

8  Leaders  of  the  Old  Bar,  p.  42. 

63 


1809]      ACTIVE    PROFESSIONAL    LIFE 

hat,  and  his  feet  wrapped  up  in  a  piece  of  old  green  baize, 
held  the  reins  of  four  of  the  most  raw-boned  and  ill-groomed 
horses  I  ever  sat  behind;  and  the  harness  was  unlike  any 
thing  I  had  ever  seen  before,  or  have  seen  since,  except  per 
haps  in  France,  being  part  leather  and  part  rope,  the  harness 
of  the  leaders  and  that  of  the  wheel  horses  having  less  con 
sanguinity  than  the  horses  themselves,  looking  as  if  it  had 
been  collected  from  different  parts  of  Old  Virginia.  The 
morning  was  cold  and  the  roads  deep.  We  had  not  gone  a 
mile  of  the  way  before  it  became  obvious  that  the  load  was 
too  much  for  the  horses,  and  if  they  had  been  good,  it  would 
have  been  too  much  for  the  harness.  Some  of  our  company 
got  out,  and  footed  it  to  Alexandria  for  another  outfit.  Con 
sidering  that  the  judge  was  responsible  for  me  where  I  was, 
I  stuck  to  the  coach,  and  the  coach  stuck  to  the  mud;  and  had 
it  not  been  that  the  horses  got  very  hungry  and  pulled  desper 
ately  for  the  corn-crib  at  Mount  Vernon,  I  might  have  stuck 
there  much  longer.  By  dint,  however,  of  whipping,  and 
above  all  a  desperate  appetite  in  our  cavalry,  we  made  out 
to  arrive,  after  being  passed  on  the  road  by  our  fellow- 
travellers,  who  had  been  refitted  at  Alexandria,  and  who 
greeted  us  en  passant  with  a  shout  of  laughter.  The  carca- 
jada  came  from  David  H—  -  and  David  B.  Ogden.  But  a 
warmer  welcome  and  a  higher  degree  of  comfort  than  were 
prepared  for  us  at  Mount  Vernon  it  was  impossible  to  have 
anywhere.  I  never  passed  a  more  delightful  day  and  night 
than  under  the  roof  of  General  Washington  and  his  nephew, 
the  judge,  who  resembled  his  uncle  in  many  things  more  than 
in  his  equipage.  Judge  Brockholst  Livingston  was  of  our 
party,  a  most  pleasant  and  gentlemanly  companion,  particu 
larly  free  and  gay  during  our  Saturday  night  at  Alexandria, 

which  that  rogue  David  H said  was  accounted  for  by 

an  enormous  charge  for  gin,  which  I  believe  he  prevailed 

63 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Ex.  30-31 

upon  the  landlord  to  put  in  the  bill,  and  after  it  had  served 
its  purpose  of  a  laugh,  was  rectified  as  a  mistake." 

In  each  of  the  next  two  winters  Mr.  Binney  again  visited 
Washington,  in  the  attempt  to  secure  a  renewal  of  the  charter 
of  the  United  States  Bank,  and  became  acquainted  with 
many  of  the  men  who  then  figured  in  public  life.  "  Such 
was  the  entire  recklessness,"  he  wrote,  "  of  some  of  the  lead 
ing  party  men  to  the  consequences  of  overthrowing  the  bank, 
that  although  the  corporation  was  to  die  on  the  4th  of  March, 
1811,  and  it  was  not  known  to  them  how  the  bank  would  hold 
to  the  property  of  the  stockholders  after  that  day,  the  com 
mittee  of  the  Senate,  before  which  I  appeared,  would  not 
recommend  a  day  to  be  given  to  the  bank  to  wind  up  its  con 
cerns  or  to  collect  its  dues.  Mr.  Clay,  who  was  one  of  the 
committee,  told  me  that  he  was  afraid  of  us — he  would  not 
give  us  an  hour.  He  said  it,  it  is  true,  with  a  smile ;  but  be 
tween  the  smile  of  Mr.  Clay  9  over  the  death-bed  of  the  first 
bank  and  the  frown  of  General  Jackson  over  the  death-bed 
of  the  second,  the  difference  was  a  shadow  only. 

"  I  have  more  than  doubted  whether  Mr.  Gallatin,  to 
whom  I  had  made  known  the  intention  of  the  directors  to 
assign  to  trustees,  notwithstanding  he  was  an  apparent  friend 
to  renewal,  did  not  let  the  cat  out  of  the  bag,  to  increase  the 
responsibility  of  Clinton,  the  Vice-President,  by  leaving  the 
bank  to  its  own  measures. 

"  I  learned  at  Washington,  in  the  winter  of  1811,  that 
the  policy  of  the  administration  was  to  get  a  renewal,  if  they 
could  do  it  without  too  much  responsibility,  and  if  they  could 
not,  to  throw  the  responsibility  of  refusing  it  on  George 
Clinton,  who  was  Vice-President,  and  was  feared  as  a  future 


"Some  years  later  Mr.  Clay  changed  his  mind  as  to  the  usefulness  of  such 
an  institution,  and  was  for  a  time  one  of  the  counsel  for  the  second  United  States 
Bank. 

64 


1810-11]     ACTIVE    PROFESSIONAL    LIFE 

opponent  of  Mr.  Madison.  Worthington,  of  the  Senate,  was 
an  intimate  friend  of  Gallatin,  and  would  be  the  last  to  vote 
upon  the  question.  If  the  bill  would  be  carried  without  his 
vote,  he,  it  was  said,  was  to  vote  for  it ;  but  if  a  chance  should 
occur  to  make  a  tie,  it  was  the  design  that  he  should  make  it. 
So  it  occurred,  and  so  he  voted.  Clinton  gave  the  casting 
vote  against  the  renewal.  The  coincidence  may  have  given 
rise  to  the  story.  The  bank  wound  up  its  concerns  so  judi 
ciously  that  the  mischiefs  of  non-renewal  were  not  felt  till 
the  litter  of  State  banks  that  came  in  its  place  spread  their 
paper  over  the  country,  and  in  three  years  after  the  whole 
broke.  The  same  thing  happened,  and  after  less  than  the 
same  interval,  with  the  second  bank." 

In  July,  1808,  Mr.  Binney  became  a  member  of  the 
the  American  Philosophical  Society,  as  his  father  had  been 
before  him.  In  the  autumn  of  1810,  and  again  a  year  later, 
he  was  elected  to  the  Common  Council  of  the  city  of  Phila 
delphia,  where  his  associates  chose  him  their  president  each 
term.  His  court  practice  continued  to  increase,  and  in  1811 
he  won  his  second  victory  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  in  King  vs.  Delaware  Insurance  Company,10 
in  which  it  was  held  that  where  an  officer  of  a  British  man- 
of-war,  being  misinformed  as  to  the  effect  of  the  Orders  in 
Council,  warned  a  ship's  captain  not  to  proceed  to  his  destina 
tion,  and  the  captain  abandoned  the  voyage  without  attempt 
ing  to  verify  the  information,  the  underwriters  were  not 
liable  for  the  consequent  loss. 

In  the  same  year  he  won  the  case  of  Munns  vs.  Dupont,11 
in  the  Circuit  Court,  a  leading  authority  on  probable  cause  in 
an  action  for  malicious  prosecution. 


10  6  Cranch,  71. 

11 3  Wash.  C.  C.,  31;    1  Am.  Lead.  Cas.,  200. 
65 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^ET.  32 


In  1812  Mr.  Binney  's  increasing  income  enabled  him 
to  build  the  house  on  the  east  side  of  Fourth  Street,  south 
of  Walnut  Street,  which,  with  the  one-story  office  adjoining, 
built  soon  after  (and  paid  for  out  of  the  proceeds  of  the 
fifth  volume  of  his  reports)  ,  he  occupied  until  his  death.  He 
had  already  two  children,  —  Mary,  born  February  27,  1805, 
and  Horace,  born  January  21,  1809.  By  the  time  that  his 
son  was  a  year  or  two  old,  Mr.  Binney  had  overcome  whatever 
feeling  against  infant  baptism  he  may  have  had,  and  was 
ready,  moreover,  to  receive  the  same  sacrament  himself.  He 
and  his  children  were  baptized  together  by  Dr.  Abercrombie, 
rector  of  the  United  Churches  of  Christ  Church,  St.  Peter's, 
and  St.  James's,  and  he  doubtless  became  a  communicant 
very  soon  afterwards. 

Mr.  Binney  has  left  no  record  of  his  precise  views  in 
regard  to  the  war  with  England,  which  broke  out  in  1812. 
He  probably  thought  it  a  mistake  in  its  inception,  an  error 
of  judgment  on  the  part  of  the  administration,  which  could 
have  been  honourably  avoided  but  for  Madison's  blind  con 
fidence  in  the  supposed  good  will  of  Napoleon,  and  finally 
his  yielding  to  the  excited  clamour  of  a  certain  element  in 
Congress;  but  this  view  did  not  involve  approval  of  the 
course  of  the  New  England  Federalists  in  persistent  opposi 
tion  to  the  war  after  it  had  once  begun.  In  a  letter  written 
in  1863,  in  regard  to  the  draft,  he  referred  to  the  debates  on 
the  same  point  in  1814,  as  follows: 

New  England  got,  as  you  have  heard,  exceedingly  crusty,  and 
was  not  unwilling,  after  Madison's  second  election,  to  put  an  end  to 
the  war,  or  the  government,  or  to  anything  that  first  presented.  The 
Monroe  argument  [on  the  draft]  proceeded  upon  the  Federal  rule 
of  construction,  that  the  power  to  raise  and  support  armies  being 
given  to  Congress,  all  the  ways  of  doing  this  that  were  reasonably 
necessary  and  proper  were  also  given.  The  argument  of  the  opposi- 

66 


1812]       ACTIVE    PROFESSIONAL    LIFE 

tion  was  weak,  and  I  think  savoured  of  hatred  to  the  war  more  than 
of  the  old  Federal  spirit.  After  Hamilton's  death,  indeed,  the  Federal 
party  had  not  a  name  to  live.12 

Madison's  renomination  in  1812  was  a  defeat  for  the 
followers  of  Clinton,  who  thereupon  sought  the  aid  of  the 
Federal  party,  which,  although  by  itself  a  hopeless  minority, 
was  still  strong  enough  to  prove  a  valuable  ally.  In  June, 
1812,  an  informal  convention  of  Federalists  met  in  New 
York  to  consider  the  proposition  of  the  Clinton  Democrats, 
and  Mr.  Binney  attended  as  a  delegate  from  Pennsylvania. 
Otis  and  others  favoured  coalition,  urging  the  futility  of  a 
contest  by  the  Federalists  alone,  and  the  advantage  of  a  cam 
paign  which  had  some  promise  of  success.  Rufus  King,  on 
the  other  hand,  argued  that  the  Federal  party  could  be  held 
together  only  in  support  of  its  distinctive  principles,  which 
differed  so  radically  from  those  of  the  Democratic  that  they 
would  be  compromised  by  an  alliance  with  any  faction  of  the 
latter,  even  one  whose  candidate  claimed  to  be  fairly  conser 
vative,  and  that  the  party  would  disintegrate  in  consequence. 
He  held  that  the  possession  of  office  was  not  essential  to  the 
usefulness  of  the  Federal  party,  which,  even  when  out  of 
office,  could  do  good  work  in  checking  the  excesses  of  extreme 
democracy,  so  that  the  only  wise  course  was  to  stand  for 
Federal  principles  exclusively,  by  which  means  alone  could 
the  party  be  maintained  and  its  principles  kept  alive.  King's 
advice  was  not  followed,  and  his  prophecy  of  the  extinction 
of  the  Federal  party  was  fulfilled,  but  his  words  sank  deeply 
into  Mr.  Binney's  mind  and  memory,  for  the  view  was  one  in 


"Letter  to  Dr.  Lieber,  August  6,  1863.  A  letter  to  Mr.  J.  C.  Hamilton  in 
regard  to  the  same  affair  says,  "  Any  one  who  recollects  this  must  say  certainly 
General  Hamilton  must  have  been  both  dead  and  forgotten,  or  the  debate  would 
never  have  taken  such  ground  in  the  hands  of  his  friends  of  old." 

67 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  32-35 

which  he  thoroughly  coincided,  both  at  the  time  and  ever 
afterwards.  He  himself  refused  to  follow  the  leaders  of 
the  party,  maintaining  that  they  had,  "  after  the  manner  of 
a  Dutch  auction,  sold  themselves  to  the  lowest  bidder." 

Whatever  may  have  been  Mr.  Binney's  general  opinion 
in  regard  to  the  war,  he  certainly  disapproved  one  act  of  the 
administration  in  connection  with  it, — viz.,  the  harsh  treat 
ment  of  General  Hull  after  his  surrender  of  Detroit.  The 
first  court-martial  was  dissolved  by  the  President,  without 
assigning  any  cause.  A  year  later  a  second  court-martial  was 
ordered,  and  Mr.  Binney  volunteered  to  defend  the  general, 
but  the  aid  of  counsel  was  refused  him.13  One  can  well 
imagine  what  Mr.  Binney  must  have  thought  of  such  a  piece 
of  tyranny. 

Another  matter  growing  out  of  the  war  terminated  more 
satisfactorily.  The  skipper  of  a  small  New  England  coaster, 
a  thoroughly  loyal  man,  having  been  captured,  with  his  vessel, 
by  the  British,  was  recaptured  near  Lewes,  Delaware,  while 
accompanying  them  in  a  peaceable  attempt  to  purchase  sup 
plies.  Having  been  found  with  an  armed  force  of  the  enemy, 
he  was  indicted  at  Philadelphia  for  high  treason,  and  the 
charge  was  backed  by  strong  circumstantial  evidence.  Mr. 
Binney  defended  him.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  party  had 
come  ashore  under  a  flag  of  truce,  but  the  British  admiral's 
certificate  to  that  effect  could  not  be  put  in  evidence,  and  only 
one  witness  stated  that  he  saw  the  flag.  On  the  other  hand, 
a  number  of  the  government's  witnesses  swore  positively  that 
they  saw  no  flag.  Matters  looked  serious  for  the  defendant 
until  it  occurred  to  Mr.  Binney  to  ask  what  was  the  direction 
of  the  wind  as  regards  the  place  where  the  adverse  witnesses 
were  when  they  saw  the  party  land.  As  the  answers  showed 


"  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Rec.,  1893,  p.  309. 
68 


1812-15]     ACTIVE    PROFESSIONAL    LIFE 

that  the  wind  was  blowing  directly  from  the  witnesses  to 
wards  the  landing  party,  so  that  any  flag  would  have  been 
blown  directly  away  from  them,  and  they  could  not  possibly 
have  seen  it,  the  force  of  their  prior  testimony  was  broken, 
and  the  prisoner  was  acquitted. 14 

Of  the  effect  of  the  war  upon  his  own  profession,  Mr. 
Binney  wrote  as  follows : 

"  The  war  brought  its  usual  fruits,  destruction  to  com 
merce  and  profit  to  the  bar,  whose  interests  are  rarely  injured 
by  national  adversity.  This  is  one  of  the  principal  deduc 
tions  from  the  general  popularity  of  the  profession,  and  one 
of  the  reasons  why  it  receives  more  respect  than  love.  It 
flourishes  while  other  callings  are  distressed.  But  lawyers 
did  not  make  the  war,  and  their  agency  diminished  its  mis 
chiefs  by  keeping  the  current  of  the  law  unobstructed. 

"  The  usual  incidents  of  war  were  mixed  up  with  some 
extraordinary  embarrassments  caused  by  our  former  non- 
intercourse  with  England;  for  all  American  property  that 
arrived  in  the  United  States  from  England,  if  it  sailed  after 
the  war  broke  out,  was  as  liable  to  confiscation  by  our  own 
government  as  it  would  have  been  to  condemnation  if  cap 
tured  by  the  enemy.  A  law  of  Congress,  however,  relieved 
our  citizens ;  but  to  obtain  the  relief  required  the  intervention 
of  the  bar,  and  here  again  they  profited." 


14  United  States  vs.  Pryor,  3  Wash.  C.  C.,  234. 


HORACE    BINNEY  MT.  35 


ACTIVE   PROFESSIONAL   LIFE    (CONTINUED)— ELECTION 

TO    CONGRESS 

1815-1833 

IT  has  been  attempted,  in  the  previous  chapter,  to  give 
some  idea  of  the  beginning  and  development  of  Mr. 
Binney's  active  practice  at  the  bar,  but  in  truth  the 
twenty-five  years  which  followed  his  term  in  the  Legislature 
furnish  little  material  for  biography.  He  argued  many  cases, 
some  of  them  of  permanent  importance,  but  all  of  compara 
tively  little  interest  to  the  world  at  large ;  as  one  of  the  coun 
sel  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  he  wrote  many  opinions 
on  points  of  commercial  law;  he  performed  the  duties  of  a 
citizen  for  five  years  in  Councils;  and  also  as  an  officer  of 
various  institutions  for  philanthropic,  educational,  or  other 
public  purposes;  he  was  a  man  of  mark  in  the  community; 
but  his  life  was  in  no  way  eventful.  Of  this  fact  no  one  was 
more  conscious  than  himself,  for  although  he  loved  the  law 
as  the  great  peace-maker  among  men,  he  cherished  no  illu 
sions  in  regard  to  the  lawyer's  life. 

"  If  a  lawyer,"  he  wrote,  "  confines  himself  to  his  pro 
fession,  and  refuses  public  life,  though  it  be  best  for  his 
family,  and  therefore  for  his  own  happiness,  it  makes  sad 
work  with  his  biography.  You  might  almost  as  well  under 
take  to  write  the  biography  of  a  mill-horse.  It  is  at  best  a 
succession  of  concentric  circles,  widening  a  little  perhaps 
from  year  to  year,  but  never,  when  most  enlarged,  getting 
away  from  the  original  centre.  He  always  has  before  him 

70 


1815]       ACTIVE    PROFESSIONAL    LIFE 

the  same  things,  the  same  places,  the  same  men,  and  the  same 
end.  It  is  surprising  to  what  an  extent  he  has  the  same 
clients.  His  work  is  always  the  same  in  kind,  and  he  pursues 
the  same  method  of  doing  it.  One  trial  is  very  much  like 
another,  and  one  speech  of  a  lawyer  very  like  all  the  rest  of 
his  speeches.  Every  question  in  the  longest  life  at  the  bar 
comes  within  the  range  of  one  or  two  inquiries, — Does  the 
thing  in  controversy  belong  to  A  or  B,  or  has  C  done  some 
thing  to  D  which  he  ought  not  to  have  done?  And  after  a 
lawyer  has  for  thirty  years  employed  himself  in  such  in 
quiries,  he  may  write  his  life  in  a  single  sentence, — He  spent 
his  time  in  investigating  facts,  which  when  known  did  not 
make  him  any  wiser,  or  in  investigating  principles  which  were 
of  little  use  but  to  enable  him  to  investigate  and  apply  the 
facts.  At  least,  such  ought  to  be  the  case  to  justify  the  sneer 
which  is  commonly  directed  against  the  mere  lawyer.  This, 
indeed,  constitutes  the  great  drawback  from  the  profession 
of  the  law,  not  merely  that  the  life  of  a  lawyer  has  great 
sameness,  but  that  the  investigations  which  cost  him  the  most 
time  and  labour  do  not  in  the  slightest  degree  increase  his 
stock  of  useful  knowledge.  The  physician  in  the  practice 
of  his  profession,  and  at  the  bedside  of  his  patient,  investi 
gates  facts  which  instruct  him  in  the  general  laws  of  pa 
thology  and  in  the  general  effects  of  medical  treatment.  He 
learns  something  for  application  in  other  cases,  to  soothe  the 
pains  of  humanity,  or  to  assist  him  in  the  investigation  of 
some  general  truth  not  yet  perfectly  developed.  His  pro 
fession  is  also  largely  connected  with  investigations  of  profit 
in  many  departments  of  nature, — mineralogy,  botany,  zool 
ogy,  and  the  like.  But  the  lawyer's  facts  are  unproductive  of 
all  benefits,  except  to  the  fortunate  client.  When  the  cause 
is  tried,  the  facts  are  of  no  more  importance  to  the  lawyer 
himself  than  last  year's  price  of  calicoes,  nor  to  the  rest  of 

71 


HORACE    BINNEY  [J3T.  35 

mankind  perhaps  half  so  much.  They  are  forgotten  as  soon 
as  the  verdict  is  given,  and  well  for  the  lawyer  is  it  that  they 
can  be  forgotten. 

"  The  more  a  man  is  a  lawyer,  then,  the  less  he  has  to 
say  of  himself.  The  more  causes  he  has  tried,  the  more  time 
has  he  lost.  The  more  facts  he  has  investigated,  the  less  he 
knows.  The  biography  of  lawyers,  however  eminent,  qua 
lawyers,  is  nothing.  Such  men  have  been  in  some  instances 
connected  with  political  life,  and  with  the  great  actors  in  it, 
and  a  few  have  been  deeply  tinctured  with  letters  and  have 
been  part  and  parcel  of  the  world  of  authors.  This  is  another 
matter;  but  the  life  of  the  best  practical  lawyer  that  ever 
lived,  if  confined  to  the  history  of  his  practice,  or  to  the  his 
tory  of  his  social  and  intellectual  march  through  the  world 
within  the  proper  limits  of  his  profession,  would  in  general 
be  truly  summed  up  as  I  have  summed  it." 

To  proceed,  however,  with  the  brief  record  of  these  busy 
years,  it  may  be  noted  that  by  the  close  of  the  war  with  Eng 
land  Mr.  Binney  and  his  personal  friends  at  the  bar  were  in 
possession  of  all  that  the  profession  of  the  law  could  at  that 
time  bring,  whether  of  reputation  or  of  gain.  Those  who 
had  been  leaders  fifteen  years  before  had  in  a  great  degree 
retired  from  active  practice,  and  in  a  few  years  afterwards 
most  of  them  had  passed  away.  Though  closely  occupied  at 
the  bar,  so  closely  that  he  had  had  to  cease  reporting  the  Su 
preme  Court  decisions,  a  work  in  which  he  took  a  very  keen 
interest,  Mr.  Binney  served  as  a  member  of  Select  Councils 
from  1816  to  1819,  a  service  which  meant  a  sacrifice  of  time 
and  personal  comfort,  as  he  had  no  taste  for  public  life,  nor 
any  desire  to  make  this  unpaid  office  a  stepping-stone  to 
something  higher.  After  his  term  in  the  Legislature  he  had 
been  repeatedly  asked  to  be  a  candidate  for  Congress,  but 
had  "  uniformly  and  obstinately  declined."  His  opinion  of 

72 


1815]      ACTIVE    PROFESSIONAL    LIFE 

American  public  life,  as  expressed  in  a  letter  to  his  friend 
Pickering,  in  February,  1815,  was  this: 

"  Public  life  is  in  the  United  States  what  it  is,  I  believe, 
in  no  other  country  in  the  world.  In  other  countries  it  is  a 
profession.  It  has  its  peculiar  and  permanent  rewards  of 
wealth,  reputation,  and  power,  in  each  of  which  there  is  per 
haps  a  sufficient  recompense  for  the  individual,  his  family, 
and  his  friends.  Here  I  need  not  say  what  it  is  to  you,  who 
know  what  have  been  its  fruits  to  one  of  the  purest  and  wisest 
statesmen  of  our  country.  I  may  be  excused  for  saying  that 
there  is  no  individual  in  this  people  who  is  held  in  more  vener 
ation  by  myself  and  my  friends  than  your  excellent  father,1 
or  whose  history — I  mean,  of  course,  the  history  of  his  public 
rewards — reads  a  more  decisive  lesson  upon  the  nature  of  the 
public  profession  in  America.  He  has  shown  that  to  be  a 
pure,  honourable,  lofty  statesman  it  is  necessary  to  take  up 
the  cross  and  despise  the  shame ;  and  what  young  man,  unless 
he  is  elected  to  be  an  apostle  and  a  martyr,  and  is  gifted  with 
their  spirit,  will  take  up  the  one  or  encounter  the  other?" 

Whether  this  view  was  wholly  correct  may  be  open  to 
question.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  it  is  less  correct,  at  least  in 
some  respects,  as  regards  public  life  at  the  present  day  than 
it  was  in  1815;  but,  correct  or  not,  it  was  sincerely  held,  and 
is  referred  to  merely  to  point  out  that  Mr.  Binney's  five  years 
of  service  in  Select  and  Common  Councils  involved  a  real  sac 
rifice  to  what  he  thought  his  duty  as  a  citizen.  Such  sacrifices, 
however,  were  not  uncommon  at  that  day,  and  they  indicate 
that,  small  and  plain  in  appearance  as  Philadelphia  then  was, 
there  was  proportionately  far  more  public  spirit  (of  the  self- 
sacrificing  kind,  the  only  kind  that  is  worth  having)  then  than 
now.  These  sacrifices  on  the  part  of  the  best  citizens  bore 


1Hon.  Timothy  Pickering. 
73 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  36-43 

good  fruit,  the  character  of  the  municipal  officers  being  such 
that  the  city  was  as  honestly  and  capably  governed  as  any  in 
the  world  at  that  time.  Were  the  same  public  spirit  preva 
lent  to-day,  with  the  greatly  increased  opportunities  for  mu 
nicipal  activity,  no  Philadelphian  would  have  any  cause  to 
be  ashamed  of  his  city.  If  the  City  Councils,  for  instance, 
had  among  their  members  a  fair  number  of  the  leaders  of 
the  bar,  the  men  in  most  active  practice,  and  a  similar  pro 
portion  of  the  most  prominent  men  in  other  lines,  what  might 
not  Philadelphia  become?  To  say  that  they  could  not  be 
elected  is  to  confess  that  popular  government  is  necessarily 
a  failure.  The  only  other  explanation  of  their  exclusion 
from  the  city  government  is  that  they  are  unwilling  to  make 
the  sacrifices  which  participation  in  it  would  involve. 

In  1816  Mr.  Binney  was  selected  to  aid  Mr.  Ingersoll, 
then  Attorney-General,  in  the  trial  of  Frederick  Eberle  and 
forty-eight  others  2  for  conspiracy  to  forcibly  prevent  the 
use  of  English  in  the  services  at  Zion  German  Lutheran 
Church  on  Fourth  Street.  The  congregation  had  become  so 
far  Americanized  in  the  course  of  years  that  a  large  number 
of  them  wished  to  have  the  services  conducted  in  English  to 
a  certain  extent,  though  not  to  the  exclusion  of  German. 
The  German  party,  however,  would  take  no  compromise,  and 
circulated  a  paper  stating,  among  other  things,  that  they 
would  resist  all  use  of  English  "  mit  Leib  und  Leben."  The 
threat  was  carried  out,  so  far  as  physical  violence  was  con 
cerned,  though  without  actual  bloodshed.  At  the  trial  the 
fierceness  of  the  German  party  abated  somewhat,  and  they 
attempted  to  prove  that  "  mit  Leib  und  Leben"  was  a  mere 
figure  of  speech,  indicating  the  use  of  only  as  much  force  as 
the  law  would  allow ;  but  there  was  enough  evidence  to  show 


2  See  Commonwealth  vs.  Eberle,  3  S.  &  R.,  9. 

74 


1816-23]     ACTIVE    PROFESSIONAL    LIFE 

an  actual  intention  to  exemplify  the  sentiment  afterwards 
expressed  by  Bismarck, — "  Wir  Deutschen  filrchten  Gott 
und  sonst  Niemand  in  der  Welt'' — and  the  defendants  were 
convicted.  They  were  afterwards  pardoned,  however,  the 
governor  being  a  man  of  their  race. 

In  1819  Mr.  Binney  purchased  a  summer  residence  on 
the  banks  of  the  Delaware,  at  Burlington,  New  Jersey,  then 
a  favourite  resort  of  Philadelphians,  as  it  was  easily  reached 
by  steamboat  and  of  course  very  much  more  quiet  and  rural 
than  it  is  now.  This  remained  the  summer  home  of  his  family 
for  nearly  thirty  years,  though  he  himself  was  rarely  there 
for  many  days  at  a  time. 

In  1821  he  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Apprentices' 
Library  and  its  first  president. 

In  the  same  year  he  argued  the  leading  case  of  Laussatt 
vs.  Lippincott,3  wherein  it  was  held  that  where  goods  are 
delivered  to  a  factor  for  sale,  and  he  deposits  them  with  a 
broker  or  other  sales  agent  in  the  ordinary  course  of  busi 
ness,  and  advances  are  made  in  anticipation  of  sale,  the  prin 
cipal  is  bound  by  the  transaction  even  though  he  may  not 
ultimately  receive  the  money,  or  though  the  sale  may  not  be 
on  the  terms  on  which  he  ordered  it  to  be  made. 

The  case  of  Lyle  vs.  Richards,4  argued  in  1823,  is  of 
great  importance  in  Philadelphia  as  settling  the  title  to  the 
Bush  Hill  property,  originally  a  country-seat  of  the  Hamil 
ton  family,  but  now  a  closely  built  portion  of  the  city.  The 
case,  an  action  of  covenant  on  a  ground-rent  deed,  concerned 
the  construction  of  a  devise  with  contingent  remainders  in 
tail,  and  the  validity  of  a  common  recovery  which  Mr.  Binney 
had  himself  conducted  in  1814,  and  which  was  held  to  have 


'6  S.  &  R.,  386;   s.  c.,  1  Am.  Lead.  Cas.,  668. 
4  9  S.  &  R.,  322. 

75 


HORACE    BINNEY  [yEx.  43-44 

been  well  suffered.  Apart  from  the  financial  importance  of 
the  case,  the  opinions  are  also  of  great  interest  as  treatises 
on  the  transmission  to  Pennsylvania  of  the  common  law  in 
regard  to  real  property.  It  was  in  this  case  that  the  court 
acknowledged  the  eminence  of  several  departed  worthies  of 
the  bar,  and  especially  of  Edward  Tilghman. 

Although  devoting  himself  almost  exclusively  to  his  pro 
fession,  as  far  as  business  matters  were  concerned,  Mr.  Bin- 
ney  was  far  from  indifferent  to  those  great  industrial  de 
velopments,  which,  especially  in  the  matter  of  transportation, 
distinguished  the  period  in  which  he  lived.  Thus  in  1823  he 
was  one  of  the  incorporators  of  the  first  Pennsylvania  Rail 
road  Company,  chartered  to  build  and  operate  a  railroad 
from  Philadelphia  to  Columbia  on  a  system  invented  by  the 
celebrated  engineer,  John  Stevens,  of  New  Jersey,  a  con 
nection  by  marriage  of  Mr.  Binney's.  Steam-railroads  can 
hardly  be  said  to  have  yet  existed,  for  although  Stephenson 
had  made  his  first  successful  trial  of  a  locomotive  in  July, 
1814,  the  Stockton  and  Darlington  Railway,  the  first  road 
in  the  world  to  carry  passengers  and  goods  by  means  of  a 
locomotive,  was  not  opened  until  September  27,  1825.  The 
Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company  of  1823  was  apparently 
met  by  the  same  problem  that  at  first  confronted  its  name 
sake  of  1846, — viz.,  lack  of  the  necessary  capital;  and  as  the 
plan  of  obtaining  subscriptions  from  municipal  corporations 
was  not  yet  in  vogue,  the  enterprise  had  to  be  abandoned 5 
and  the  charter  allowed  to  lapse;  so  that  the  same  corporate 
title  was  available  for  adoption  twenty-three  years  later  by 
another  company. 

In  1824  Mr.  Binney's  oldest  son,  at  that  time  the  only 
one,  entered  Yale  College.  Many  other  parents  have  doubt- 


0  A  railroad  to  Columbia  was  built  by  the  State  about  1830. 

76 


1823-24]     ACTIVE    PROFESSIONAL    LIFE 

less  taken  an  equally  keen  interest  in  the  mental  and  moral 
training  and  development  of  their  sons,  but  comparatively 
few  whose  burden  of  professional  cares  and  duties  was  equal 
to  Mr.  Binney's  have  been  willing  to  give  to  that  training 
and  development  as  constant  and  close  personal  attention  as 
he  did.  From  October,  1824,  when  he  left  his  son  at  New 
Haven  to  begin  his  studies,  until  September,  1828,  when  he 
was  present  at  his  graduation,  Mr.  Binney  wrote  to  him  every 
week,  saving  only  when  they  were  together,  or  in  the  very 
few  instances  when  ill  health  or  the  pressure  of  work  made 
writing  an  impossibility.  The  sacrifice  of  time  and  comfort 
which  these  letters  cost  is  shown  by  frequent  references  to  the 
circumstances  under  which  they  were  written,  often  late  at 
night,  when  mind  and  hand  were  alike  wearied  by  prolonged 
labour,  sometimes  before  breakfast,  and  two  or  three  times 
while  waiting  in  court,  "  during  a  bombardment  of  reports, 
Acts  of  Assembly,  and  so  forth;"  but  even  if  he  had  to 
"  steal  almost  from  necessary  repose"  the  time  required,  while 
smarting  eyes  and  singing  ears  showed  the  strain  of  continu 
ous  work,  the  father  could  yet  say,  "  Nevertheless,  it  may  be 
of  use  to  you,  however  written,  and  it  is  the  hope  of  this,  my 
dear  boy,  that  makes  my  fingers  fresh  for  the  pen  when  my 
body  and  almost  my  mind  are  exhausted  by  daily  labour." 
The  correspondence  had  a  double  object,  to  enable  the  father 
to  keep  in  touch  with  his  son  through  every  step  of  his  college 
career,  counselling,  suggesting,  inquiring,  and  sometimes 
criticising,  and  to  accustom  the  son  to  express  his  thoughts 
fully  and  freely  in  writing  on  any  subject  which  might  come 
up.  In  the  way  of  counsel  every  part  of  the  field  was  covered, 
not  only  as  to  studies,  but  as  to  health,  exercise,  eating,  sleep, 
dress,  use  of  money,  keeping  accounts,  handwriting,  tricks  of 
manner,  formation  of  friendships,  social  duties,  religious  ob 
servances,  and  every  detail  that  bore  on  the  development  of 

77 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^ET.  45 


character  and  personality.    A  less  positive  character  than  that 
of  the  son  might  perhaps  have  been  dwarfed  by  the  very 
pressure  of  such  minute  and  detailed  oversight  and  control,  j 
or  a  less  obedient  nature  might  have  rebelled  against  it,  but  ! 
in  this  instance  the  course  pursued  seems  to  have  been  alto 
gether  fitting,  and  in  any  event  the  constant  invitation  to  the  \ 
freest  expression  of  opinion  in  reply  provided  a  safety-valve 
in  case  the  pressure  should  ever  be  too  severely  felt.    All  the 
letters  display  not  merely  deep  affection  and  interest,  but  the 
fullest  confidence  in  the  son  to  whom  they  were  sent.    Thus 
where  one  letter  had  been  thought  to  show  apprehension  in 
regard  to  the  course  of  study  pursued,  Mr.  Binney  wrote  : 

I  had  no  apprehension.  My  object  was  to  prevent  an  occasion 
for  any.  It  would  by  no  means  answer  to  apply  such  a  rule  to  my 
letters,  that  my  animadversions  upon  an  error  spring  from  a  supposi 
tion  that  you  have  fallen,  or  are  about  to  fall,  into  it.  I  have  en 
deavoured,  I  fear  with  no  great  method  (such  are  the  other  demands 
upon  my  time),  to  make  a  chart  of  the  seas  through  which  you  are 
sailing,  or  must  sail  hereafter  ;  and  I  have,  in  execution  of  this  design, 
pointed  out  the  deep  and  safe  waters,  and  the  currents  and  shoals 
that  are  unsafe.  I  have  had  no  apprehension  that  you  were  already 
in  the  currents  or  upon  the  shoals,  nor  that  you  were  immediately  in 
danger  of  being  there  ;  but  I  point  out  the  evil  to  you,  as  the  maker  of 
charts  does  to  the  navigator  while  he  is  still  on  shore.  I  have  little 
doubt  that  you  will  avoid  most  or  all  of  them,  perhaps  not  the  less 
because  I  have  pointed  them  out  to  you. 

In  these  letters  Mr.  Binney  made  no  secret  of  his  intense 
desire  that  his  son  should  make  the  most  of  every  oppor 
tunity  for  mental  and  moral  development  that  his  college 
life  afforded.  At  times  this  desire  came  to  the  front  in  such 
words  as,  "  My  heart  is  absolutely  anchored  to  the  hope  that 
you  will  be  the  first  scholar  in  the  class,"  or,  "I  absolutely 
hunger  and  thirst  to  see  you  a  first-rate  Latin  and  Greek 

78 


1825]       ACTIVE    PROFESSIONAL    LIFE 

scholar,  and  mathematician,  and  anything  else  you  please," 
and,  as  more  than  one  letter  shows,  the  scholarship  which  he 
had  in  mind  was  something  more  fundamental  than  merely 
what  might  be  shown  by  college  examinations  and  be  re 
warded  by  college  honours. 

That  the  son  was  intended  for  the  bar  seems  to  have  been 
practically  settled  before  he  entered  college.  It  is  occasion 
ally  alluded  to  in  the  letters,  especially  those  written  towards 
the  end  of  the  college  course,  yet  such  was  Mr.  Binney's 
belief  in  the  necessity  of  the  collegiate  education  as  a  founda 
tion  for  the  professional,  that  the  letters  are  concerned  almost 
wholly  with  the  former,  and  legal  matters  are  scarcely  ever 
referred  to.  But  one  of  Mr.  Binney's  numerous  cases  is 
mentioned,  and  that  in  consequence  of  his  son's  inquiry  about 
it.  Public  matters  are  rarely  alluded  to,  and  family  matters 
at  no  great  length.  Nearly  every  letter  is  devoted  to  a  dis 
cussion  of  some  topic  bearing  directly  on  the  son's  studies  or 
the  development  of  his  character. 

The  career  of  Horace  Binney,  Jr.,  both  at  college  and  in 
after-life,  amply  rewarded  all  his  father's  care  and  realized 
his  fondest  hopes.  He  not  merely  attained  the  highest  col 
lege  honours,  and  a  very  unusual  breadth  of  scholarship,  but 
developed  a  character  remarkable  alike  for  strength  and 
purity.  He  was  not,  it  is  true,  favoured  with  his  father's 
opportunities  for  winning  professional  distinction,  but  he 
was  always  recognized  as  a  thorough  master  of  his  profes 
sion,  and  showed  conspicuous  ability  in  every  task  which  he 
undertook,  whether  as  a  lawyer  or  as  a  citizen. 

These  letters  to  his  son  give  some  glimpses  of  Mr.  Bin 
ney's  life  in  1824-28.  On  February  2,  1825,  he  wrote: 

At  home  I  have  to  record  a  Wistar  party  on  Saturday  evening 
last,  where  I  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  an  assembly  of  about  a  hun- 

79 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^BT.  45 


dred  of  the  most  agreeable  and  well-informed  men,  strangers  and 
residents,  to  be  found  in  our  city.  .  .  .  There  were  so  many  that 
it  was  not  possible  for  me  to  say  more  than  a  word  to  any  one,  but 
they  engaged  themselves  with  others,  as  they  found  most  agreeable. 
Mr.  Cooper,  the  author  of  "  The  Spy,"  was  also  there  ;  Mr.  Ticknor, 
the  professor  of  modern  languages  at  Cambridge;  Major  Long,6 
Mr.  Say,  etc.,  the  gentlemen  whose  journey  to  the  sources  of  the 
St.  Peter  you  saw  lying  on  my  table;  in  fine,  all  you  know,  and  a 
great  many  you  don't,  even  by  name  or  description. 

In  the  summer  of  1825  Mr.  Binney  visited  Niagara  in 
company  with  his  oldest  daughter  and  Miss  Dale,  the 
daughter  of  his  friend,  Commodore  Richard  Dale,  one  of 
the  heroes  of  the  "  Bonhomme  Richard."  Two  letters  give 
some  idea  of  the  impressions  received  on  this  trip. 

NIAGARA  FALLS,  July  3,  1825. 

We  arrived  at  this  place  last  evening,  after  a  delightful  ride 
from  Albany.  .  .  .  The  ride  as  far  as  Utica  is  thro'  the  beautiful 
valley  of  the  Mohawk,  which  possesses  as  much  interest  to  the  lover 
of  the  picturesque,  as  well  as  to  the  lover  of  agriculture,  as  you  can 
imagine;  and  when  you  connect  with  this  the  lakes  of  Skaneateles, 
Cayuga,  Seneca,  and  Canandaigua,  over  or  on  the  shores  of  which 
you  pass,  and  which  are  sheets  of  the  purest  water,  with  beautiful 
shores  and  with  beautiful  villages  on  them,  you  may  suppose  the  ride 
has  been  a  delightful  one.  But  all,  all  fades  before  the  scene  which 
I  have  just  viewed,  and  which  is  distinctly  visible  from  the  window  of 
the  room  where  I  write.  I  am,  as  my  date  shows,  on  the  British  side, 
and  in  the  dominions  of  the  British  sovereign.  On  this  side  you  are 
supposed  to  have  the  best  view  of  the  Falls,  it  being  the  side  on  which1 
the  Horseshoe  Fall,  as  it  is  called,  makes  its  plunge. 

The  mass  of  beautiful  green  water  constantly   tumbling  over 


"Major  Stephen  H.  Long,  of  the  Topographical  Engineers,  United  States 
army.  In  1819-20  he  commanded  an  exploring  expedition  in  the  West,  reaching 
the  Rocky  Mountains  and  making  considerable  additions  to  the  geographical 
knowledge  of  the  day. 

80 


1825]      ACTIVE    PROFESSIONAL   LIFE 

this  part  of  the  fall  makes  it  a  particular  object  of  attraction,  and 
you  can  stand  on  Table  Rock  in  perfect  safety  close  by  the  edge 
of  it.  Everywhere,  however,  it  is  magnificent  beyond  description, 
and  it  is  so  vast,  and  at  the  same  time  so  well  proportioned,  if  I  may 
so  say,  that  half  the  observers  are  at  first  look  disappointed.  It  is 
only  when,  after  a  second  and  a  third  visit,  the  mind  comprehends 
all  the  details  of  this  vast  object, — the  quantity  of  water,  upward 
of  one  hundred  millions  of  tons  hourly;  its  great  breadth,  about 
three-quarters  of  a  mile,  or  as  wide  as  the  Delaware  at  Philadelphia; 
its  depth,  as  great  as  the  height  of  Christ  Church  steeple ;  the  cease 
less  tumbling  of  this  mass  of  waters  into  the  profound  abyss ;  the 
continued  rising  of  the  vapour;  the  foaming,  tossing,  hissing,  and 
howling  of  the  water;  and  above  the  falls,  for  two  or  three  miles,  a 
succession  of  falls  or  rapids,  over  which  the  waters  spring  emulous 
to  form  part  of  the  great  cataract, — it  is  only  after  thinking  of  the 
union  of  all  these  that  the  impression  of  their  magnitude  becomes 
awful.  One  day  you  must  see  them :  they  shall  be  a  reward  for  your 
college  victories. 

ALBANY,  Saty.  9  July,  1825. 

We  arrived  here  last  evening  from  the  Falls  of  Niagara,  and 
go  over  to  Lebanon  this  afternoon,  hoping  to  see  you  at  New  Haven 
on  Thursday  or  Friday.  .  .  .  No  accident  has  occurred  in  a  ride  of 
more  than  600  miles  to  disturb  the  security  and  pleasure  of  the  jour 
ney.  We  have  seen  a  great  deal,  of  which  many  people  talk  as  if  New 
York  contained  les  sept  merveilles.  I  have  not  seen  that ,  nor,  indeed, 
anything  but  the  Falls  of  Niagara,  to  excite  wonder;  but  there  is 
the  appearance  of  great  activity,  and  in  a  short  time  we  may  expect 
some  refinement,  of  which  at  present  there  is  a  very  natural  scarcity. 

On  December  28  Mr.  Binney  presided  at  a  meeting  held 
in  the  Supreme  Court  room  to  urge  the  construction  of  a 
breakwater  at  the  entrance  to  Delaware  Bay,  many  vessels 
having  been  lost  there  every  year  on  account  of  the  lack  of 
any  harbour  to  take  shelter  in  in  stormy  weather.  This  move 
ment  brought  about  the  Act  of  Congress  of  May  23,  1828, 

6  81 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Ex.  46 

providing  for  the  construction  of  the  breakwater,  which  was 
begun  the  following  year. 


(From  a  letter  of  March  22,  1826.) 

Professor  Everett  has  made  a  speech  in  Congress,  which  has 
made  more  noise  than  from  the  printed  sketch  it  deserves.  He  has 
uttered  in  it  a  sort  of  confession  of  faith  on  the  subject  of  Slavery, 
that  was  gratuitous,  not  at  all  called  for  by  the  occasion,  and  will 
make  him  infinitely  odious  to  many  people  who  wished  him  well.  He 
says  that  servitude,  more  or  less  mitigated,  is  inseparable  from  the 
conditions  of  human  nature;  that  Christianity  presupposes  it,  and 
provides  for  it,  by  saying,  "  Slaves  obey  your  masters ;"  that  the 
Southern  slaves  are  better  off  than  the  European  peasants,  etc.,  etc. 
This  is  either  false,  or  nothing  to  the  purpose  in  favour  of  slavery, 
which  is  an  institution  that  ought  to  be  regarded  as  both  an  evil  and 
a  sin;  for  unless  it  be  so  regarded,  due  exertions  will  never  be  made 
to  get  rid  of  it,  and  it  will  finally  vent  itself  in  a  tremendous  volcano, 
that  will  overspread  with  its  lava  the  whole  Southern  country,  as  it 
has  done  the  island  of  Haiti.  I  wish  well  to  the  South.  I  think  no 
man  does  who  encourages  its  people  to  perpetuate  the  institution  of 
slavery. 

(From  a  letter  of  July  20, 1826.) 

Nothing  is  stirring  among  us,  unless  it  may  be  orations  and 
ceremonials  in  celebration  of  the  two  ex-Presidents.  There  is  some 
thing  very  extraordinary  in  the  coincidence  of  these  deaths ;  but  to 
those  who  were  living  twenty-eight  years  ago,  and  were  of  an  age  to 
understand  and  remark  the  political  events  of  the  day,  the  most 
extraordinary  feature  in  their  history  is  that  of  a  joint  or  consociated1 
celebration.  Their  tempers  and  dispositions  towards  one  another 
would  at  one  time  have  made  a  very  tolerable  salad,  though  I  do  not 
mean  to  say  which  was  the  pepper  and  vinegar,  and  which  the  oil; 
but  it  never  entered  into  my  conception  that  it  would  ultimately  settle 
down  into  such  a  homogeneous  mixture  as  to  admit  of  one  and  the 
same  apotheosis.  You  must  understand  me,  my  son,  however,  for  I 


1826]       ACTIVE    PROFESSIONAL    LIFE 

will  not  be  instrumental  in  conveying  to  you  an  error  of  any  kind, 
and  therefore  I  would  not  have  you  think  that  I  mean  to  sneer  at 
these  celebrations.  Mr.  Adams  and  Mr.  Jefferson  were  both  dis 
tinguished  men  of  the  Revolution,  and  then  and  for  some  years  after 
walked  hand  in  hand.  They  may  be  celebrated  in  common  during 
this,  perhaps  the  best  and  most  useful  part  of  their  lives;  and  they 
may  be  celebrated  for  great  properties.  I  think,  however,  candidly, 
that  justice  will  not  be  done  to  Mr.  Adams  by  any  such  common  cele 
bration.  He  deserves  to  be  spoken  of  by  himself,  and  in  my  humble 
judgment  as  a  much  wiser,  stronger,  and  better  man  than  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  ;  I  mean  better  for  the  great  interests  of  our  country.  He  was  a 
very  downright  and  outright,  as  well  as  upright  man,  full  of  passion 
and  not  exempt  from  prejudice.  Consequently  he  showed  all  his 
failings  and  showed  them  in  the  strongest  lights.  But  he  was  withal 
a  most  honest  man,  a  thoroughly  read  statesman,  and  a  man  who 
could  no  more  be  turned  from  his  purpose  than  a  lion.  Mr.  Jefferson 
I  ought  not  to  speak  of;  he  has  been  the  steady,  undeviating,  and 
but  for  his  recent  death  I  would  say  insidious  enemy  of  my  profession 
in  its  highest  walk,  the  bench,  the  judiciary.  I  confess  myself 
strongly  prejudiced  against  him.  He  was  accomplished  in  all  the 
arts  that  make  intercourse  with  a  man  delightful,  so  his  friends  say. 
This  people  may  say  that  he  was  equally  accomplished  in  all  the 
arts  that  captivate  the  popular  heart,  and  subdue  it  to  the  purposes 
of  the  politician.  I  lived  when  young  in  such  circumstances  as  not 
to  be  able  to  praise  him  for  this.  In  the  history  of  American  parties 
he  will  have  with  posterity  the  precedence  of  Mr.  Adams,  but  I  cannot 
doubt  that  in  the  history  of  American  Independence,  although  Mr. 
Jefferson  wrote  the  Declaration,  Mr.  Adams  will  be  commemorated 
as  foremost  and  the  most  strenuous  in  its  achievement. 

Mr.  Binney  was  a  delegate  to  the  General  Convention 
of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  1826  and  1829.  At  the  former 
he  wrote  the  report  of  the  Committee  on  the  General  Theo 
logical  Seminary,  which  had  been  in  existence  barely  nine 
years,  and  was  still  considerably  in  need  of  funds.  The  re- 

83 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^T.  47 


port  recommended  that  the  dioceses  be  asked  to  join,  in  pro 
portion  to  the  number  of  clergy  in  each,  in  raising  the  sum 
of  twenty  thousand  dollars,  in  order  to  restore  to  the  endow 
ment  fund  what  had  been  advanced  from  it  to  the  building 
fund,  calling  attention  to  the  reproductive  character  of  the 
charity  in  these  words:  "  Most  charities  are  consumed  in  the 
use.  They  are  like  the  annual  flowers  of  the  field,  —  there 
remains  little  after  them  but  the  recollection  of  their  beauty 
and  grateful  fragrance.  But  the  endowment  of  a  seat  of 
learning,  and,  above  all,  of  Christian  learning,  is  the  planting 
of  a  tree  whose  fruits  are  perennial,  whose  roots  strike  deeply 
into  the  soil,  and  whose  branches,  spreading  over  the  earth, 
and  shooting  up  into  the  skies,  continue  from  year  to  year, 
and  from  age  to  age,  to  reproduce  and  to  commemorate  the 
gift." 

The  convention  received  this  report  with  hearty  approval, 
and  adopted  the  resolution  suggested,  but  the  desired  result 
was  not  attained  by  precisely  the  mode  proposed,  for  the 
records  of  the  convention  of  1829  show  that  the  dioceses  of 
New  York  and  South  Carolina  alone  made  any  attempt  to 
raise  their  proportionate  shares  of  the  fund,  and  only  the 
receipt  of  a  large  legacy  obviated  the  need  of  a  renewal  of 
the  appeal. 

Early  in  1827  occurred  the  trial  of  the  long  protracted 
libel  suit  of  Levett  Harris  vs.  William  D.  Lewis,  a  cause 
celebre  at  the  time,  but  never  reported.  The  defendant  had 
been  one  of  a  firm  of  merchants  in  St.  Petersburg,  the  only 
American  house  there,  during  the  last  years  of  the  "  Conti 
nental  system,"  under  which  British  trade  was  excluded  from 
the  Continent.  His  firm  claimed  to  have  been  injured  by 
certain  alleged  acts  of  the  plaintiff,  the  American  consul,  in 
corruptly  certifying  English  goods  to  be  American,  thereby 
enabling  them  to  be  imported  and  sold.  During  Monroe's 

84 


1827]       ACTIVE    PROFESSIONAL   LIFE 

administration  there  was  some  idea  of  appointing  Mr.  Harris 
minister  to  Russia,  and,  to  prevent  a  confirmation  in  case  the 
nomination  were  made,  Mr.  Lewis  printed  a  circular,  en 
titled  "  Consular  Corruption,"  containing  detailed  statements 
of  alleged  sales  of  certificates,  and  had  it  laid  on  the  desk 
of  each  Senator.  Mr.  Harris  was  not  appointed,  and  in 
January,  1820,  brought  suit  for  libel  in  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Pennsylvania,  at  nisi  prius,  laying  his  damages  at  one  hun 
dred  thousand  dollars.  He  retained  Mr.  Binney  as  leading 
counsel,  and  with  him  Messrs.  Dallas,  Hopkinson,  Charles 
J.  Ingersoll,  Sergeant,  and  Swift.  Mr.  Lewis,  whose  plea 
was  truth  and  justification,  was  represented  by  Mr.  Chauncey 
and  Joseph  R.  Ingersoll.  The  testimony,  relating  to  occur 
rences  of  several  years  before,  and  obtained  from  consular 
officials  and  persons  engaged  in  foreign  commerce,  had  to 
be  taken  under  commissions  in  many  parts  of  the  world,  so 
that  the  case  was  not  ready  for  trial  till  seven  years  had 
elapsed.  Among  other  distinguished  witnesses  was  John 
Quincy  Adams,  then  Secretary  of  State,  who  had  been  the 
minister  at  St.  Petersburg  at  the  time  of  Harris's  alleged 
acts.  So  great  was  the  public  interest  in  the  case,  both  parties 
having  numerous  and  zealous  adherents,  that  the  judges  who 
always  tried  Philadelphia  cases  (Tilghman,  Gibson,  and 
Duncan)  preferred  to  keep  clear  of  it,  and  selected  Judge 
Huston  to  hold  the  court,  he  being  from  a  remote  county 
and  beyond  the  reach  of  the  local  influence.  The  trial  lasted 
from  January  29  to  February  14,  about  half  the  time  being 
consumed  by  the  arguments  and  the  addresses  to  the  jury.  It 
resulted  in  a  verdict  for  the  plaintiff  for  one  hundred  dollars. 
Writing  on  February  14,  the  day  the  case  went  to  the 
jury,  Mr.  Binney  said,— 

They  [the  jury]  have  not  agreed,  and  from  what  I  hear  I  do 
not  know  that  they  will.     It  has  been  a  cause  of  unexampled  labour 

85 


HORACE    BINNEY  [.3ET.  44-47 

and  public  excitement;  and  you  may  imagine  the  burden  placed  on 
me,  when  it  was  my  post  to  conclude  the  cause,  and  I  occupied  with 
my  speech  from  five  o'clock  of  Monday  afternoon  [the  12th]  until 
the  same  hour  of  yesterday,  having  in  that  time  spoken  seven  hours. 
I  endeavoured  to  do  my  duty,  and  I  am  gratified  to  learn  that  the 
impression  was  a  good  one.  The  court-house  was  crowded  during 
the  trial,  and  particularly  during  the  last  two  days,  when  there  were 
probably  more  than  five  hundred  persons  in  the  room.  .  .  . 

My  health,  as  you  may  suppose,  has  suffered  a  little  by  the 
continuance  of  my  labour  and  attention  for  so  long  a  period.  At 
some  moments  in  the  cause  I  have  suffered  intense  pain;  but  now  it 
is  over,  I  am  able  to  say  to  you  that  the  consciousness  of  having 
endeavoured  faithfully  to  do  my  duty  effaces  all  recollection  of  what 
was  disagreeable  in  it,  even  before  my  body  is  recovered  from  its 
fatigue. 

At  the  Harvard  Commencement  of  this  year  Mr.  Binney 
received  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws.  While  appreciating 
the  honour,  he  was  averse  to  making  much  use  of  the  title, 
saying  to  his  son,  "  In  regard  to  the  LL.D.,  it  is  not  meant, 
of  course,  for  an  e very-day  dress,  to  be  worn  on  the  outside 
of  letters,  nor  on  the  inside  either,  after  the  first  salute.  I 
have  already  been  doctored  to  death,  not  an  uncommon  thing, 
according  to  Le  Sage." 

The  Pennsylvania  Horticultural  Society  was  founded  on 
December  21  of  this  year,  and  in  the  following  June  Mr. 
Binney,  who  had  been  one  of  its  originators  and  had  always 
cared  a  good  deal  for  his  own  gardens,  was  chosen  president 
for  the  first  year.  He  held  the  same  office  again  from  1836 
to  1841. 

One  incident  of  his  life  during  the  twenties  illustrates  a 
state  of  public  opinion  which,  to  the  Philadelphian  of  to-day, 
seems  as  far  off  in  the  past  as  the  Golden  Age.  The  city  still 
had  a  large  foreign  trade,  and  the  interests  of  commerce 

86 


1824-27]     ACTIVE    PROFESSIONAL    LIFE 

dominated.  "  On  a  certain  afternoon,"  wrote  Mr.  Binney, 
"  while  I  was  sitting  in  my  office,  a  committee  of  the  Chamber 
of  Commerce  of  this  city  came  in,  and  asked  me  to  draw  a 
memorial  for  the  body  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States, 
against  the  tariff,  or  protection.  I  told  them  that  I  would 
attempt  it,  with  pleasure.  (The  work  was  wholly  unprofes 
sional,  but  patriotic,  and  to  be  so  considered,  as  it  was.)  I 
asked  when  they  required  it  for  signature;  and  the  answer 
was,  '  To-morrow  morning.'  I  replied  that  the  time  was 
short,  but  I  would  do  my  endeavour.  I  sat  at  the  work  that 
night,  I  will  not  say  what  portion  of  it,  and  gave  it  to  them 
in  the  morning,  the  first  copy,  though  pretty  clean,  and  they 
copied  and  signed  it  without  a  word  of  alteration,  and  sent 
it  to  the  Senate."  7 

Mr.  Binney  himself  never  saw  the  memorial  again,  but  it 
is  in  print,8  and  states  very  clearly  his  views  on  the  relations 
between  the  government  and  the  citizens  in  regard  to  private 
affairs,  views  which,  he  insisted,  were  held  by  the  old  Fed 
eralists  generally.  It  may  be  well  to  quote  some  passages. 

The  universal  opinion  of  well-informed  men  has  now  estab 
lished  it  as  a  general  rule  that  the  greatest  degree  of  national  wealth 
is  to  be  obtained  by  leaving  every  one  to  the  unfettered  use  of  his 
own  labour,  skill,  and  capital;  for  it  is  in  this  way  that  individuals, 
of  whom  nations  are  composed,  attain  to  the  greatest  prosperity. 
Obvious,  however,  as  this  general  truth  now  is,  it  has  been  long  in 
coming  to  light ;  legislation  has  had  its  dark  ages  as  well  as  letters ; 
and  certainly  they  have  continued  longer  to  envelop  the  principles 
of  national  wealth  than  they  did  to  obscure  the  laws  of  science  or  the 
beauties  of  literature.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  dawn,  which  has 
tardily  broken  over  the  world  in  the  department  of  trade,  is  not  to 


7  Letter  to  Dr.  Lieber,  September  17,  1869. 

8  Executive  Papers,  No.  94,  18th  Cong.,  1st  sess.,  vol.  ii.    It  is  dated  February 
24,  1824,  and  opposes  the  tariff  bill  which  became  a  law  on  May  22,  1824. 

87 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  44-47 

be  immediately  overcast,  and  particularly  that  the  clouds  which  are 
again  to  darken  it  are  not  to  proceed  from  a  quarter  where  every 
thing  else,  in  regard  to  government,  lies  in  the  broadest  light.  If 
legislation  acts  upon  the  subject  of  trade,  which,  after  all,  is  more 
safely  left  to  the  law  of  man's  nature,  by  which  he  is  incessantly 
stimulated  to  do  the  best  for  himself,  and  therefore  for  his  country,  it 
should  act  for  the  removal  of  impediments  and  restrictions,  not  for 
the  creation  of  them.  So  much  more  unerring,  however,  is  this  law 
of  man's  nature  than  any  political  regulation,  that  it  has  been  deemed 
the  wisest  course  to  abstain  from  public  enactments  altogether,  and 
leave  the  hive  to  the  industry  and  instinct  of  its  labourers,  without 
attempting  to  direct  which  cell  shall  be  first  filled,  or  to  narrow  the 
passage  to  one,  or  enlarge  it  to  another,  more  than  the  wisdom  of  the 
labourers  shall  each  for  himself  provide. 

Whatever  interference  with  the  general  freedom  of  trade  is 
necessary  for  the  purposes  of  revenue,  and,  still  further,  whatever 
provisions  have  justly  for  their  object  to  sustain  the  government 
itself,  by  enabling  it  to  withstand  the  shock  of  war,  and  with  this 
view  to  promote,  within  its  own  bosom,  the  necessary  resources  for 
such  a  trial,  all  communities  of  men  must  submit  to,  and  will  submit 
to  cheerfully.  Laws  enacted  for  these  purposes  are  necessary  excep 
tions  to  the  general  rule — not  exceptions  to  its  truth,  for  it  is  true 
without  exception,  but  exceptions  to  its  application;  they  are  the 
price  which  nations  pay  for  their  existence  as  such;  they  tend  to 
diminish  the  production  of  wealth,  but  they  do  what  in  every  condi 
tion  of  the  world  has  been  found  as  useful  as  to  produce, — namely, 
to  secure  the  product.  But  beyond  this  the  danger  of  legislative 
interference  with  trade  becomes  extreme.  Be  the  wisdom  and  impar 
tiality  and  foresight  of  the  Legislature  what  they  may,  they  are  at 
no  time,  and  under  no  circumstances,  perfectly  adequate  to  the  task. 

After  some  discussion  of  the  details  of  the  proposed  law, 
the  memorial  concluded  in  these  words : 

To  the  principle  of  the  law  your  memorialists  are,  however, 
more  opposed  than  to  its  details.*  It  seems  to  them  to  be  a  political 

88 


1824-27]     ACTIVE    PROFESSIONAL    LIFE 

theory  under  the  name  of  a  duty  bill;  and  that  a  theory  which  both 
argument  and  experience  have  exploded, — the  theory  that  govern 
ment  knows  better  than  an  individual  what  is  good  for  him,  and  can 
better  employ  his  skill,  his  labour,  and  his  capital;  that  it  is  wiser, 
and  more  economical,  to  buy  dear  of  our  own  people  than  cheap  of 
foreigners;  and  that  it  is  competent,  in  these  times,  for  a  nation  to 
grow  wealthy  and  happy,  with  her  gates  opening  outward  to  sell 
everything,  but  to  buy  nothing. 


The  memorial  was  unheeded  by  Congress,  but  it  voiced 
the  opinions  of  the  leading  association  of  Philadelphia  busi 
ness  men  at  that  day.  One  would  as  soon  look  for  such  a 
memorial  from  any  such  body  to-day  as  one  would  for  a  re 
quest  from  the  leading  citizens  of  Charleston  for  the  appoint 
ment  of  negroes  to  office. 

Upon  the  death  of  Chief  Justice  Tilghman,  in  April, 
1827,  the  bar  of  Philadelphia,  with  very  few  exceptions, 
united  in  a  memorial  to  Governor  Shulze,  requesting  him 
to  appoint  Mr.  Binney  as  Tilghman's  successor.  Mr.  Binney 
himself  took  no  part  in  the  movement,  never  writing  a  letter 
or  saying  a  word  to  promote  the  design.  In  fact,  he  never 
even  saw  the  memorial  or  knew  its  contents.  Any  other 
course  of  action  would  have  been  utterly  at  variance  with  his 
principles.  "  In  the  time  of  General  Washington,"  he  wrote, 
"  and  of  his  immediate  successor  Mr.  Adams,  I  think  it  would 
not  have  been  thought  less  strange  for  a  man  to  solicit  a 
judgeship  than  for  a  lady  to  solicit  a  gentleman  in  marriage. 
Had  such  an  instance  occurred,  it  would  have  been  univer 
sally  held  to  imply  a  want  of  both  dignity  and  capacity,  to 
have  been  a  self -puffing  and  a  self-seeking,  which  wholly  un 
fitted  the  applicant  for  a  judicial  station.  Solicitation  of 
such  an  office  by  the  individual  concerned,  or  at  his  instance, 
was  wholly  unknown.  But  [Jefferson]  led  the  way  to  a 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Bx.  47 

change.  From  a  tide-waiter  to  a  minister  plenipotentiary, 
from  a  marshal  to  the  highest  judge  in  the  land,  the  people 
were  enticed  to  interfere,  by  personal  recommendations,  in 
all  appointments  to  office.  They  were  sometimes  prompted 
to  do  it  by  agents  of  the  Executive,  to  divide  or  perhaps  cast 
off  the  responsibility  for  an  improper  appointment.  In  the 
sequel  every  office  became  subject  to  the  usage,  and  the  in 
terval  was  a  short  one  between  asking  others  to  ask  for  you 
and  asking  directly  of  the  appointing  power.  ...  I  object 
to  the  practice  in  regard  to  any  office.  I  abominate  it  in  re 
gard  to  judicial  office,  in  which  it  can  hardly  be  expected 
that  the  judge  will  stand  erect  and  unbending  between  the 
parties  after  he  has  obtained  his  place  by  begging  it  as  a 
favour  from  one  of  them." 

The  governor  saw  fit  to  appoint  Judge  Gibson,  who  had 
been  one  of  the  puisne  justices  of  the  court  for  nearly  eleven 
years;  but,  to  show  some  deference  to  the  bar,  he  sent  Mr. 
Binney  a  commission  to  the  seat  vacated  by  Gibson's  promo-  I 
tion.  The  mere  fact  that  the  chief -justiceship  had  been  given 
to  another  was  nothing  to  Mr.  Binney,  and  had  the  commis 
sion  been  offered  during  Tilghman's  lifetime,  as  might  have 
been  done  in  1826,  when  two  judges  were  added  to  the  bench, 
it  would  probably  have  been  accepted,  for  although  Mr.  Bin 
ney  had  no  particular  desire  to  be  a  judge,  he  would  have 
deferred  to  the  wish  of  the  bar,  and  service  under  such  a  chief 
as  Tilghman  would  have  been  thoroughly  congenial.  As  it 
was,  while  he  had  a  good  opinion  of  Judge  Gibson  in  some 
respects,  he  did  not  think  him  well  fitted  to  lead  the  court, 
and  he  could  not  have  served  under  him  without  either  sacri-  • 
ficing  his  own  ideals  of  the  performance  of  judicial  duties  or 
running  the  risk  of  stirring  up  jealousy  and  dissension. 
Wishing  an  impartial  judgment  on  the  matter,  however,  he 
did  not  decline  the  appointment  without  consulting  some 

90 


1827]       ACTIVE    PROFESSIONAL   LIFE 

of  his  friends,  who  were  of  one  mind  in  advising  against 
acceptance.  Writing  to  his  son,  on  June  14,  Mr.  Binney 
said, — 

You  have  perceived  probably  by  the  papers  the  course  I  took 
in  regard  to  the  honour  extended  me  by  the  governor.  My  friends 
are  not  quite  right  in  supposing  that  I  declined  it  because  it  was  the 
lesser  honour.  I  declined  it  because  I  was  free  to  do  so,  and  would 
have  done  the  same  with  the  other  had  it  been  offered  and  had  I  been 
as  free  to  follow  my  own  judgment.  My  friends  and  the  bar  asked 
the  one  and  not  the  other.  Their  request  would  have  been  a  law  to 
me  had  it  been  granted,  but  still  a  hard  law.  Nine  months  absence 
per  annum  from  the  city  and  the  rest  in  court  (such  is  the  fate  of  a 
judge  of  the  Supreme  Court)  may  be  an  honourable  banishment  from 
one's  wife  and  children  and  domestic  comfort,  but  it  is  still  a  banish 
ment.  I  am  still  spared,  and  I  hope  without  losing  credit. 

Mr.  Binney  had  not  merely  a  very  high  regard  for  Tilgh- 
man  as  a  judge,  but  a  very  strong  personal  feeling  also. 
Their  natures  seem  to  have  been  thoroughly  in  accord. 
Tilghman  was  precisely  the  kind  of  judge  that  Mr.  Binney 
would  have  wished  to  be  had  he  occupied  Tilghman's  place. 
The  movement  to  make  him  Tilghman's  successor  was  prob 
ably  due  in  part  to  a  belief  that  he  was  better  fitted  than 
any  one  else  to  maintain  the  traditions  of  the  bench  as  they 
were  in  Tilghman's  time;  and  under  these  circumstances  it 
was  only  natural  that  the  committee  of  the  bar  appointed 
to  arrange  for  a  eulogium  upon  the  late  chief  justice  re 
quested  Mr.  Binney  to  deliver  it.  He  did  this  on  October 
13,  giving  to  his  hearers  a  beautiful  picture  of  a  wise,  learned, 
upright,  conscientious  judge;  conservative,  but  not  the  slave 
of  precedent;  progressive,  but  always  seeking  to  maintain 
the  harmony  of  the  law.  Every  sentence  in  the  discourse 
was  written  con  amore.  "  It  gratified  me  to  find  that  I  gave 

91 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Ex.  48-49 

satisfaction  to  the  bar 9  and  was  not  thought  to  have  done 
injustice  to  the  character  of  Chief  Justice  Tilghman.  I  took 
infinite  delight  in  showing  what  sort  of  a  chief  justice  we  had 
had  for  twenty  years ;  and  if  it  was  remarked  that  the  points 
of  character  on  which  I  dwelt  were  those  with  which  the 
qualities  of  his  successor  were  most  in  contrast,  I  must  reply 
that  they  were  not  selected  with  any  such  reference." 

Early  in  March,  1828,  Mr.  Binney  argued  the  case  of 
Conard  vs.  The  Atlantic  Insurance  Company,10  at  Wash 
ington,  a  case  which  he  once  alluded  to  as  illustrating  the 
stubbornness  of  President  John  Quincy  Adams.  A  certain 
China  merchant,  named  Edward  Thomson,  "  imported  im 
mense  quantities  of  tea,  and  under  the  bonding  law  as  then 
existing  he  had  placed  it  in  the  storehouses,  and  whenever 
he  pleased  he  could  take  out  as  much  as  was  necessary  and 
bond  it.  Well,  he  made  an  arrangement  with  the  keeper  of 
the  storehouses,  and  took  out  great  quantities  without  putting 
it  in  bond  at  all ;  for  then,  too,  as  has  been  more  frequently 
the  case  in  later  years,  it  was  a  question  of  '  who  should  watch 
the  keeper.'  Of  course,  this  was  all  discovered.  He  had 
borrowed  largely  in  New  York,  and  given  as  security  the 
bills  of  lading,  etc.,  of  cargoes  that  were  coming  to  this  port, 
Mr.  Adams  had  the  ships  libelled  at  once  on  arrival  here  as 
property,  and  I  was  engaged  by  the  insurance  companies,  the 
holders  of  the  bills  of  lading.  The  law  was  clear,  of  course, 


"Mr.  Binney  himself  did  not  think  the  eulogium  beyond  criticism.  To  his 
son  he  wrote:  "I  think  less  [of  it]  than  some  others  affected  to  do.  It  must  be 
recollected  that  such  a  composition  is  intended  for  delivery  rather  than  for 
perusal,  and  the  delivery  appeared  to  produce  some  eifect.  My  indifference  to 
such  matters  is  much  nearer  to  frigidity  than  it  ought  to  be  to  do  the  thing  per 
fectly,  and  the  dispositions  of  my  mind  are  too  much  inclined  to  reasoning  for  a 
brilliant  sally  of  imagination,  the  faculty  which  is  fittest  for  funereal  or  patriotic 
commemoration." 

10 1  Peters,  386. 

92 


1828-29]     ACTIVE    PROFESSIONAL    LIFE 

but  Mr.  Adams  insisted  on  his  view,  and  sent  Mr.  Wirt  up 
to  fight  me.  I  did  not  mind  Mr.  Wirt  much,  because  I  had 
the  law  with  me,  but  he  made  a  fine  argument,  and  I  won 
the  case.  So  little  did  Mr.  Adams  know  of  commercial  law 
that  he  insisted  on  taking  the  case  up  to  the  Supreme  Court. 
I  argued  it  there  against  Mr.  Wirt  again,  and,  nemine  con- 
tradicente,  the  court  held  in  my  favour.  So  the  government 
was  put  to  all  that  expense  by  Mr.  Adams's  obstinacy."  ll 

No  physician  saves  the  life  of  every  patient,  and  no 
lawyer  wins  all  of  his  cases.  In  both  professions  reputation 
may  be  won  in  defeat,  and  it  may  be  said  of  Mr.  Binney's 
defeats,  which  in  number  nearly  equalled  his  victories,  that 
not  one  of  them  marred  his  reputation  in  any  way.  One  of 
the  former  was  the  case  of  Lancaster  vs.  Dolan,12  argued 
early  in  1829,  and  referred  to  by  Mr.  Binney,  years  after 
wards,  in  his  sketch  of  Edward  Tilghman,  who  had  won  the 
case  of  Newlin  vs.  Newlin,13  which  Lancaster  vs.  Dolan  over 
ruled,  thereby  sweeping  away  "  every  vestige  of  authority 
from  a  married  woman,  during  coverture,  to  alienate  or 
pledge  her  separate  trust  estate."  What  Mr.  Binney  wrote 
of  the  mature  consideration  with  which  the  earlier  case  had 
been  decided,  after  a  full  argument,  was  within  his  own 
knowledge;  but  no  one,  even  to-day,  can  read  the  report  of 
Newlin  vs.  Newlin  without  seeing  that  Chief  Justice  Gibson 
had  no  warrant  for  saying  that  it  "  was  hastily  determined 
upon  an  exception  to  evidence."  "  He  never,"  wrote  Mr. 
Binney,  "  made  a  greater  mistake,  unless  when  he  overruled 
the  authority.  ...  It  has  taken  more  than  one  Act  of 
Assembly  to  patch  the  hole  in  the  law  that  was  made  by 
Lancaster  vs.  Dolan,  and  it  is  not  well  patched  yet." 


14 


11  Memoir  of  Henry  Armitt  Brown,  by  J.  M.  Hoppin,  p.  112. 
12 1  Raw.,  231.  "  1  S.  &  R.,  275. 

14  Leaders  of  the  Old  Bar,  59. 

93 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  49-50 

Judge  Washington's  death,  on  November  26,  1829, 
created  a  vacancy  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  and  Mr.  Binney's  friends  at  once  applied  to  Presi 
dent  Jackson  in  his  behalf.  More  than  two  years  before  this, 
Mr.  Wirt,  then  Attorney-General,  had  stated  that  if  a  seat 
on  that  bench  should  become  vacant,  President  Adams  in 
tended  to  nominate  Mr.  Binney,  but  whether  General  Jack 
son  knew  of  his  predecessor's  intention  or  not,  he  was  cer 
tainty  not  the  man  to  be  influenced  by  it.  "  I  did  hear,"  wrote 
Mr.  Binney  years  afterwards,  "  that  he  sent  an  official  friend 
to  this  city  to  inquire  how  the  office  would  in  my  keeping 
'  suit  the  Democracy  of  Pennsylvania,'  and  that  the  answer 
was  not  comfortable.  My  friend  Baldwin  got  it,  and  I  saw 
his  letter  to  my  friend  Chauncey,  in  which  he  did  me  the 
honour  to  say  that  I  deserved  it,  but  that  he  wanted  it 
more."  15 

In  regard  to  the  two  unsuccessful  applications  of  his 
friends  Mr.  Binney  wrote  to  his  son : 

There  is  a  singular  resemblance  in  some  points  between  my 
expectation  and  my  disappointment  in  each  case,  if  expectation  and 
disappointment  it  can  be  called.  I  declare  with  perfect  sincerity  that 
I  never  wanted  either  office,  the  chief -justiceship  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Pennsylvania,  or  a  seat  on  the  bench  of  the  United  States,  except 
as  the  elevated  means  of  doing  my  duty,  or  rather  of  doing  service 
to  the  public.  If  I  had  been  called  upon  to  accept  either,  I  should 
have  accepted  it  with  a  consciousness  that  I  surrendered  ease  for 
labour,  security  for  responsibility,  and  the  delights  of  domestic  life 
for  a  struggle  for  public  favour.  Had  not  these  sacrifices  opened 
to  me  a  larger  field  of  duty,  I  would  not  have  thought  an  instant  of 
making  them.  When  I  found  that  they  were  not  asked  of  me,  it  may 
be  supposed  that  I  adhered  with  greater  approbation  of  conscience 
to  the  pursuits  of  private  life. 


"Letter  to  S.  A.  Allibone,  March  24,  1871. 
94 


1829-30]     ACTIVE    PROFESSIONAL    LIFE 

By  the  death  of  Judge  Tod,  in  March,  1830,  the  seat 
which  Mr.  Binney  had  declined  in  1827  again  became  vacant, 
and  Governor  Wolf  wrote  to  him  as  follows : 

Information  has  just  been  received  here  of  the  death  of  Judge 
Tod,  of  the  Supreme  Court.  Should  this  report  prove  true,  of  which 
there  can  scarcely  be  a  doubt,  a  vacancy  will  have  occurred,  which 
must  be  speedily  filled.  Will  you,  sir,  consent  to  fill  it?  It  is  my 
earnest  desire  to  give  weight  and  character  to  our  judiciary,  whenever 
an  opportunity  shall  be  offered  for  that  purpose;  and  as  an  earnest 
of  that  desire,  permit  me  to  say  that  it  will  afford  me  much  pleasure 
to  send  you  a  commission,  if  you  will  say  in  reply  to  this  that  you 
will  accept  it. 

Mr.  Binney  had  a  high  regard  for  Governor  Wolf,  con 
sidering  him  one  of  the  best  governors  that  the  State  had 
ever  had,  perhaps  the  best  of  them  all,  and  he  had  reason  to 
believe  that  the  governor  had  offered  him  the  commission 
with  a  sincere  wish  that  he  should  accept  it,  whereas  Governor 
Shulze  had  apparently  made  a  similar  offer  only  because  he 
could  not  well  avoid  it;  but  as  regards  the  court  itself  the 
conditions  were  the  same  as  in  1827,  or  possibly,  since  the 
death  of  Judge  Duncan,  even  less  to  Mr.  Binney's  taste. 
Accordingly  he  did  not  hesitate  to  decline;  and  it  was  well 
for  him,  both  personally  and  professionally,  that  he  did  so, 
though  for  reasons  which  he  could  not  possibly  have  fore 
seen.  Within  nine  years  thereafter  the  tenure  of  judicial 
office  during  good  behaviour  was  abolished  in  Pennsylvania, 
and  a  fifteen  years'  term  substituted.  No  change  of  any  kind 
which  occurred  in  Mr.  Binney's  lifetime  was  more  abhorrent 
to  him  than  this,  except  the  further  step  of  making  the  ju 
diciary  elective.  He  would  never  have  consented  to  retain  an 
office  which  he  held  to  have  been  most  seriously  degraded  by 
the  change.  Deep  as  was  his  resentment  in  1838,  and  ever 

95 


HORACE    BINNEY  [Mf.  50-52 

thereafter,  at  the  insult  to  the  law,  it  would  have  been  em 
bittered  by  the  reflection  that  he  himself  was  one  of  the 
judges  whom  the  majority  of  the  voters  of  the  State  did  not 
think  worthy  to  serve  by  the  time-honoured  tenure  of  good 
behaviour.  And  yet  his  resignation  would  almost  certainly 
have  been  ascribed  to  pique  or  party  feeling,  and  would  have 
subjected  him  to  criticism,  the  utter  injustice  of  which  would 
not  have  rendered  it  any  the  more  pleasant.  All  this  he  was 
spared  by  declining  the  judicial  robe,  but  his  choice  proved 
wise  in  still  another  way,  equally  unanticipated.  In  1830  he 
looked  forward  to  a  speedy  termination  of  his  active  practice 
at  the  bar,  and  he  would  have  thought  nothing  less  probable 
than  that  the  pinnacle  of  his  fame  as  a  lawyer  would  be 
reached  fourteen  years  later.  Had  he  gone  on  the  bench  he 
would  never  have  argued  the  Girard  Will  case,  for  though  he 
would  have  resigned  in  1838,  it  is  inconceivable  that,  with  his 
ideas  of  the  permanence  of  the  judicial  office,  he  would  have 
returned  to  practice  as  that  modern  anomaly,  an  ex- judge, 
under  any  consideration  whatever. 

By  the  year  1830  the  strain  of  long-continued  work 
began  to  tell  upon  Mr.  Binney's  health,  and  to  his  mind  the 
change  wrought  by  Chief  Justice  Tilghman's  death  had  seri 
ously  affected  the  comfort  and  dignity  of  practice  at  the  bar, 
so  that  he  planned  to  gradually  withdraw  from  court  busi 
ness.  His  wish  to  do  so  was  intensified  by  the  death  of  his 
oldest  child,  Mrs.  Cadwalader,  in  October,  1831.  From  the 
day  of  her  birth,  when  he  was  but  twenty-five  years  old,  she 
had  been  a  part  of  all  his  happiness,  of  all  his  hopes.  She 
was  his  constant  companion,  the  intelligent  and  sympathetic 
confidante  of  all  his  feelings  and  opinions,  so  that  he,  who 
had  leaned  upon  no  one  else,  leaned  upon  her,  and  with  her 
died  the  vivid  interest  in  life  which  he  had  previously  felt. 
Publicity  of  any  kind,  even  the  moderate  publicity  of  court 

96 


1830-32]     ACTIVE    PROFESSIONAL    LIFE 

practice,  became  most  distasteful  to  him,  and  his  fixed  habit 
of  avoiding  it  as  far  as  possible  may  be  dated  from  this  time. 
When,  therefore,  as  the  election  of  1832  approached, 
Mr.  Binney's  friends  urged  him  to  become  a  candidate  for 
Congress  on  the  anti-Jackson  ticket,  he  could  not  plead  pro 
fessional  duties;  and  though  public  life  had  no  attraction 
for  him,  he  saw  that  it  would  give  him  the  desired  oppor 
tunity  to  retire  from  active  work  at  the  bar.  Aside  from  this, 
however,  the  political  conditions  of  the  day  were  such  as  to 
appeal  to  him  as  a  citizen  very  strongly,  so  that  the  request 
for  his  services  in  Congress  seemed  to  point  to  the  pathway 
of  duty.  To  a  man  of  his  strong  Federalist  principles  Presi 
dent  Jackson  was  the  incarnation  of  many  of  the  worst  charac 
teristics  of  Jeffersonian  Democracy,  besides  displaying  other 
objectionable  qualities  peculiar  to  himself.  The  establish 
ment  of  the  first  United  States  Bank  Mr.  Binney  held  to  be 
one  of  Hamilton's  characteristically  wise  measures,  proved  to 
be  so  both  by  the  stability  of  the  currency  during  the  life 
time  of  that  bank  and  its  successor,  and  by  the  instability 
which  prevailed  in  the  interval  between  the  two.  A  great 
financial  centre,  regulating  and  controlling  the  action  of  the 
State  banks,  it  gave  to  the  paper  currency  (the  ratio  of  which 
to  the  metallic  was  then  seven  times  that  of  England  and 
sixty  times  that  of  France)  a  reliability  such  as  had  been 
attained  in  no  other  way,  nor  could  be  by  any  means  then 
proposed.  He  therefore  regarded  Jackson's  recent  veto  of 
the  bill  to  renew  the  second  bank's  charter  as  most  unwise 
and  reckless,  and  in  this  view  all  the  leading  business  men  of 
Philadelphia  practically  concurred.  To  the  call  to  defend 
the  bank,  the  interest  of  his  fellow-citizens,  and  Federalist 
principles,  therefore,  Mr.  Binney  turned  no  unwilling  ear; 
but  he  frankly  told  those  who  offered  the  nomination  that 
he  could  not  represent  the  opinion  then  prevalent  in  the  city 

7  97 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  52 

in  favour  of  a  protective  tariff.  They  replied  that  they 
wished  him  to  be  their  candidate,  and  would  trust  him  as  to 
the  tariff  and  everything  else. 

He  made  no  campaign  in  furtherance  of  his  own  candi 
dacy,  but  was  the  principal  speaker  at  a  meeting  in  the  State- 
House  yard  on  the  afternoon  of  October  20  in  support  of 
the  anti- Jackson  electors.  His  address  was  a  carefully 
reasoned  exposition  of  the  motives  and  tendencies  of  the 
Jackson  administration,  summing  them  up  as  the  universal 
proscription  of  all  opposition  to  the  President's  personal 
opinions  and  will,  the  prostration  of  the  influence  of  all  the 
departments  of  the  government  except  that  which  he  himself 
filled,  and  the  concentration  of  all  party  affections  in  him 
self,  to  the  exclusion  and  sacrifice  of  every  other  object  of 
political  desire.  In  short,  the  address  was  a  powerful  arraign 
ment  of  bossism. 

Two  points  in  particular  distinguish  the  address  from  a 
campaign  speech  of  the  present  day.  The  first  point  was  Mr. 
Binney's  conviction  that  the  fundamental  principles  of  the 
government  were  at  stake,  and  not  any  mere  questions  of 
administrative  policy.  He  said, — 

The  object  [the  defeat  of  Jackson]  is,  yi  my  judgment,  of 
surpassing  magnitude,  nothing  less  depending  upon  its  attainment 
than  the  continuance  of  institutions  indispensable  to  our  country, 
and  the  preservation  of  the  Constitution  itself.  Your  right  to  attain 
it  through  the  medium  of  a  free  election  may,  thank  heaven,  be  still 
exercised  with  safety.  How  long  it  will  continue  so,  or  how  long  the  | 
enjoyment  of  it  will  be  of  any  value  to  you,  are  questions  upon  which 
the  short  remainder  of  the  present  year  will  probably  furnish  mate 
rials  for  a  decisive  judgment. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  these  words  were  no  rhetorical 
hyperbole,  but  actually  represented  the  speaker's  sincere 

98 


1832]       ACTIVE    PROFESSIONAL    LIFE 

belief.  The  Constitution  had  been  in  force  but  forty-five 
years,  and  its  strength  was  not  yet  fully  apparent.  In  view 
of  what  Jackson  had  already  done  in  overthrowing  the  pre 
viously  accepted  doctrine  of  the  permanency  of  the  civil 
service,  the  pernicious  effects  of  which  overthrow  are 
strongly  felt  to  this  day,  it  was  but  natural  to  fear  that,  if 
unopposed,  he  might  proceed  to  overthrow  the  Constitution. 
Still,  reasonable  as  the  fear  might  then  have  seemed,  one  can 
scarcely  conceive  of  its  being  entertained  in  regard  to  any 
President  at  the  present  day.  The  development  of  party 
machinery,  controlled  by  unscrupulous  bosses,  has,  it  is  true, 
made  use  of  the  very  defective  election  laws  of  at  least  one 
State  to  throttle  to  a  great  extent  the  free  expression  of  the 
popular  will  at  elections,  but  this  is  exceptional,  and  only 
possible  where  partisanship  is  unusually  strong;  and  what 
Mr.  Binney  referred  to  was  not  the  action  of  a  State  machine, 
but  of  the  national  administration. 

The  other  point  was  Mr.  Binney's  view  of  the  duties  of 
electors.  He  seems  to  have  believed  that  even  at  that  day 
the  electors  could  regard  themselves  as  representing,  as  the 
Constitution  intended  they  should,  principles  rather  than 
men,  and  that  they  might  vote  in  accordance  with  their  best 
judgment  and  not  necessarily  for  the  candidates  of  their 
party  <  The  candidates  of  the  National  Republicans  (or 
Whigs,  as  they  came  to  be  called  before  the  campaign  was 
over)  were  Henry  Clay  and  Mr.  Binney 's  friend  John  Ser 
geant;  but  while  Mr.  Binney  admitted  that  the  electors 
might  reasonably  be  expected  to  vote  for  those  candidates, 
he  did  not  think  them  bound  to  do  so.  He  therefore  said, — 

For  whom  the  electors  will  vote,  if  chosen  by  the  people,  is  at 
this  time  in  my  judgment  an  inquiry  that  ought  not  to  be  made.  The 
only  thing  it  is  needful  to  know  is  that  they  will  vote  against  Andrew 
Jackson.  Of  this  the  knowledge  is  certain.  This  is  the  great  end 

99 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JEi.  52-53 

of  the  present  effort.  This  will  be  the  great  reward  of  the  effort  if 
successful.  In  this  result  you  will  find  your  present  safety.  All 
else  it  is  the  duty  of  patriotism  now  to  regard  as  of  subordinate  con 
cern.  .  .  .  The  ticket  proposed  is  an  anti- Jackson  ticket,  and  under 
that  name,  with  the  opposition  which  it  proclaims  on  its  face,  let  us 
one  and  all,  my  fellow-citizens,  rally  round  it  and  sustain  it.16 

The  speech  was  published  in  full  in  the  United  States 
Gazette  with  an  editorial  account  as  follows : 

His  appearance  in  front  of  the  stage  was  greeted  with  ani 
mated  shouts  of  the  vast  multitude.  Mr.  Binney  held  the  delighted 
audience  almost  in  breathless  attention  for  nearly  three-quarters  of 
an  hour,  in  which  he  depicted  the  evils  of  the  present  administration 
of  the  general  government,  pointed  out  the  remedies,  and  urged  the 
citizens  to  unity  of  action,  with  a  power  of  eloquence  never  surpassed 
in  this  city.  Those  who  had  listened  for  years  to  Mr.  Binney  at  the 
bar,  and  had  grown  up  in  admiration  of  his  talents  and  eloquence, 
confessed  that  they  had  not  until  this  meeting  been  able  to  appreciate 
his  power  of  language.17 

The  Whigs  carried  the  city  by  nearly  five  votes  to  their 
opponents'  three,  Mr.  Binney  receiving  over  three  hundred 
votes  more  than  his  colleague  on  the  Congressional  ticket, 
Mr.  James  Harper,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  latter  was 
a  protectionist.  The  State,  however,  supported  Jackson,  who 
had  more  than  three-fourths  of  the  entire  electoral  vote  of 
the  country.  The  fight  in  behalf  of  the  bank  was  evidently 
destined  to  be  an  uphill  one  at  best,  but  it  cannot  be  imagined 
that  this  fact  had  any  effect  upon  Mr.  Binney's  determina- 1 
tion  to  do  his  utmost  when  the  time  should  come. 


16  It  is  true  that  the  opposition  to  Jackson  was  not  absolutely  united,  Wirt 
carrying  Vermont  as  an  anti-Mason,  and  Floyd  receiving  the  electoral  vote  of 
South  Carolina.    Yet  Mr.  Binney's  words  necessarily  imply  a  belief  that  the  Con 
stitutional  theory  of  the  status  of  electors  was  still  to  be  regarded. 

17  United  States  Gazette,  October  22,  1832. 

100 


1832-33]     ACTIVE    PROFESSIONAL    LIFE 

In  the  interval  between  his  election  and  the  assembling 
of  Congress  a  year  later,  Mr.  Binney  argued  and  won  two 
cases  in  the  United  States  Supreme  Court, — viz.,  Magniac  vs. 
Thompson  and  Lessee  of  Livingston  vs.  Moore.18  In  the 
first  it  was  held  that  an  antenuptial  settlement  could  not  be 
set  aside  as  a  fraud  upon  creditors  unless  both  parties  to  it 
had  knowledge  of  the  fraud.  The  latter  was  the  case  which 
sudden  illness  had  prevented  Mr.  Binney  from  arguing  in 
the  court  below,  so  that  it  had  been  practically  won  by  Mr. 
Sergeant  alone,  after  he  had  "  talked  the  clock  down"  on  the 
first  day  of  the  argument,  as  related  by  Mr.  Binney  at  the 
bar  meeting  held  after  Mr.  Sergeant's  death.  It  was  an 
action  of  ejectment  by  the  heirs  of  a  former  Comptroller- 
General  of  Pennsylvania  to  recover  certain  lands  sold  by  the 
State  under  its  liens  on  account  of  that  officer's  indebtedness 
to  it,  and  Mr.  Binney  and  Mr.  Sergeant  had  been  retained 
by  the  governor  by  authority  of  the  Legislature.  The  State's 
sale  of  the  lands  was  claimed  to  have  been  in  violation  of  both 
State  and  Federal  constitutions  and  the  general  principles 
of  private  rights,  but  the  court  held  that  all  the  proceedings 
of  the  State  for  the  enforcement  of  its  liens  were  legally 
unassailable,  and  that  the  purchasers  had  taken  a  good 
title. 

About  the  same  time  was  argued  the  case  of  Girard  vs. 
Philadelphia,19  in  which  the  Girard  heirs  established  their  title 
to  real  estate  acquired  after  the  date  of  their  relative's  will,  a 
result  which  immediately  led  to  the  passage  of  the  act  of 
April  8, 1833,  making  a  will  speak  from  the  date  of  the  testa 
tor's  death.  This  is  the  case  referred  to  by  Mr.  Binney  in  a 
note  to  his  sketch  of  Judge  Washington,  apropos  of  atten 
tion  on  the  part  of  judges.  "  I  have  known  one  judge,  who 


18  7  Pet.,  348,  469.  u  4  Raw.,  323. 

101 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^BT.  53 


was  a  chief  justice  also,  of  considerable  acuteness  and  of 
some  name,  who,  on  the  bench,  did  not  possess  the  faculty 
in  any  appreciable  degree.  He  made  few  or  no  notes  of 
either  evidence  or  arguments  ;  and  often,  when  thought  to  be 
employed  in  noting  an  argument,  was  scribbling  caricature 
faces  upon  his  paper.  To  so  great  an  extent  did  this  faculty 
fail  him,  that,  on  one  occasion,  when  he  understood  that  I  had 
advised  the  plaintiff's  suit,  but  had  not  been  retained  to  speak 
in  it,  and  he  was  not  satisfied  with  the  argument  of  the  coun 
sel  at  the  bar,  he  asked  me,  as  amicus  curice,  to  speak  to  the 
only  point  of  law  involved,  which  I  immediately  did,  rather 
briefly.  Three  weeks  afterwards  I  received  a  letter  from 
him,  informing  me  that  my  argument  had  satisfied  the  court, 
but  that  on  sitting  down  to  write  the  court's  opinion,  he 
found  that  he  could  not  recall  it,  and  asking  me  to  restate  it 
to  him,  which  I  did.  He  adopted  it,  and  gave  credit  for  it  in 
his  printed  opinion." 


102 


1833]  SERVICE    IN    CONGRESS 


VI 

SERVICE  IN  CONGRESS— EULOGY  ON  MARSHALL 

1833-1836 

THE  Twenty-third  Congress  (often  called  the  Star 
Congress,  on  account  of  the  number  of  eminent  men 
in  both  houses)  met  on  December  2.  The  previous 
August,  Kendall's  tentative  circular  to  the  State  banks  had 
foreshadowed  the  removal  of  the  government  deposits,  the 
next  step  in  Jackson's  war  on  the  United  States  Bank,  and 
the  removal  itself  soon  followed.  This  sudden  rupture  of 
the  long-established  business  relations  between  the  govern 
ment  and  the  bank  was,  in  Mr.  Binney's  eyes,  a  gross  viola 
tion  of  the  latter's  legal  rights,  but  this  was  almost  as  nothing 
compared  with  the  effect  of  the  removal  upon  the  country 
at  large,  by  necessarily  involving  a  serious  curtailment  in  the 
volume  of  business  which  the  bank  could  safely  carry  on,  and 
a  proportionate  contraction  in  the  bank-note  currency  of  the 
country.  Had  the  bank  been  given  a  reasonable  time  in 
which  to  prepare  for  the  removal  of  the  deposits,  the  conse 
quences,  though  serious  enough,  would  not  have  been  at  all 
so  disastrous;  but  the  suddenness  of  the  contraction  which 
the  removal  necessitated,  together  with  the  great  uncertainty 
as  to  the  future  of  the  currency,  led  at  once  to  widespread 
commercial  distress.  Under  these  circumstances,  it  was  in 
no  cheerful  mood  that  Mr.  Binney  betook  himself  to  Wash 
ington. 

That  city  had  been  for  thirty-three  years  the  seat  of  gov 
ernment,  but  it  was  still  the  "  City  of  Magnificent  Distances," 

103 


HORACE    BINNEY  [Mv.  53-54 

and  little  more.  The  population  was  probably  under  twenty 
thousand,  and  residence  there  offered  no  attractions  to  culti 
vated  people.  The  journey  from  Philadelphia  was  usually 
made  by  steamboat  through  the  Delaware  and  Chesapeake 
Canal  to  Baltimore,  and  thence  by  coach ;  but  when  the  water 
route  was  closed  by  ice  the  whole  trip  was  by  coach.  In  either 
case  it  took  most  of  two  days,  and  in  winter  it  involved  con 
siderable  exposure.  The  life  of  a  Congressman,  even  from 
so  comparatively  near  a  point  as  Philadelphia,  meant  exile 
for  almost  the  entire  session,  and  a  Washington  boarding-  or 
lodging-house  was  a  poor  substitute  for  home  to  a  man  of 
domestic  tastes.  Devotedly  attached  to  his  family  (to  whom 
he  wrote  at  least  a  few  lines  every  day,  with  scarcely  an  ex 
ception),  Mr.  Binney  felt  the  separation  very  keenly,  and 
the  low  spirits  due  to  this  cause  found  little  consolation  in 
the  acts  of  the  President  and  Congress.  At  that  time,  too, 
he  underwent  considerable  physical  suffering.  In  1832, 
when  the  President  removed  the  pension  agency  from  the 
United  States  Bank,  Mr.  Binney  was  suddenly  called  upon 
for  an  opinion  on  the  legality  of  the  removal,  and  he  spent 
an  entire  night  in  the  examination  of  the  statutes  and  au 
thorities.  The  strain  brought  on  a  serious  inflammation  of 
the  eyes,  from  which  they  had  not  wholly  recovered  when 
he  went  to  Washington.  He  suffered  greatly  from  his  eyes 
during  most  of  the  session  of  1833-34,  while  during  the  short 
session  of  1834-35  he  was  rarely  free  from  quinsy.  Had  he 
been  able  to  feel  that  he  was  doing  any  real  good  in  Congress, 
he  would  not  have  minded  the  sacrifice  of  health,  comfort, 
and  family  life;  but  the  very  first  weeks  demonstrated  that 
the  current  of  prejudice  and  partisanship  was  probably  too 
strong  to  make  head  against,  and  though  he  fought  on  as 
long  as  any  ray  of  hope  was  left,  he  ultimately  realized  that 
he  might  as  well  have  remained  in  Philadelphia.  Aside  from 

104 


1833-34]        SERVICE    IN    CONGRESS 

the  consolation  which  the  performance  of  duty  brings  to 
every  right-minded  man,  it  is  unlikely  that  any  Congress 
man  ever  disliked  his  life  in  Washington  more  heartily  than 
did  Mr.  Binney. 

Thus,  on  the  first  day  of  1834,  he  wrote: 

I  will  not  now  trust  myself  with  the  theme  of  the  New  Year. 
I  wish  you  all  multos  et  felices,  and  hope  there  will  not  be  many  in 
which  the  felicitations  so  common  to  the  day  will  fall  upon  my  ear 
so  heavily  as  they  have  done  upon  this.  I  paid  a  few  visits  this  morn 
ing,  as  is  the  custom  of  the  place:  went  first,  in  gratification  of  my 
own  feelings,  to  Mr.  Adams's,  and  afterwards  to  the  President's, 
where  there  was  an  immense  assemblage  of  every  description  of  person 
and  costume.  When  returning  to  go  out  of  the  presence  chamber,  I 
heard  my  name  called  by  a  sweet  female  voice  behind  me,  and,  as  I 
turned,  beheld  with  pleasure  Mrs.  Gordon  (Emily  Chapman)  and 
her  husband.  She  looked  well,  and  was  apparently  as  glad  to  see  me 
as  I  was  to  see  her :  such  a  bond  is  there  between  acquaintances  of  the 
same  city  when  they  meet  elsewhere. 

The  business  in  the  house  lags  and  is  heavy.  Mr.  Polk  is  not 
half  done,  and  when  he  will  begin  the  other  half  I  cannot  tell.  I 
shall  follow  him,  if  desired,  but  it  is  all  uncertain. 

Three  weeks  before  this,  on  December  10,  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury's  report  in  regard  to  the  removal  of  the 
deposits  had  been  referred  to  a  Committee  of  the  Whole. 
On  the  12th  Mr.  Polk  moved  to  reconsider  the  vote  of  refer 
ence,  in  order  that  the  report  should  be  referred  to  the  Com 
mittee  of  Ways  and  Means,  of  which  he  was  himself  chair 
man  and  to  which  Mr.  Binney  also  belonged.  Realizing  the 
danger  of  allowing  a  committee  with  a  majority  presumably 
hostile  to  the  bank  to  pass  upon  this  report  in  the  first  in 
stance,  Mr.  Binney  opposed  the  motion.1  He  urged  that  the 


1  Cong.  Deb.,  vol.  x.  2173. 
105 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^BT.  54 


Secretary's  communication  of  his  reasons  to  Congress  was  a 
part  of  the  contract  between  the  bank  and  the  government, 
and  was  intended  to  give  the  bank  the  benefit  of  a  review 
of  the  Secretary's  order  by  Congress  itself,  acting  as  an  ap 
pellate  tribunal.  The  Secretary  could  alone  remove  in  the 
first  instance  ;  his  act  removed  the  deposits  ;  his  reasons  were 
the  justifications,  if  any  there  were;  and  the  final  judgment 
of  Congress  upon  those  reasons  completed  the  course  of  the 
charter  provisions  for  the  security  of  the  bank.  The  bank 
would  not  oppose  an  inquiry  into  its  affairs  or  conduct  for 
any  proper  purpose,  but  such  inquiry  had  nothing  to  do  with 
the  course  to  be  pursued  in  regard  to  the  Secretary's  report. 
The  bank  had  a  right  by  its  charter  to  appeal  from  the  Secre 
tary  to  the  House,  but  a  further  inquiry  would  constitute  the 
House  the  prosecutor  of  the  bank.  The  Secretary  could  not 
wish  such  an  inquiry,  as  it  implied  that  his  own  inquiry  was 
inadequate,  and  that  his  allegations  and  reasonings  were  not 
good  without  further  proof. 

After  some  days  of  debate  Mr.  Folk's  motion  to  recon 
sider  was  carried,  and  he  then  moved  to  refer  the  report  to 
the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  whereupon  Mr.  Mc- 
Duffie,  of  South  Carolina,  moved  an  amendment,  instructing 
the  Committee  "  to  report  a  joint  resolution,  providing  that 
the  public  revenue,  hereafter  collected,  be  deposited  in  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States,  in  conformity  with  the  public 
faith,  pledged  in  the  charter  of  said  bank."  2  This  presented 
directly  the  question  of  the  sufficiency  of  the  Secretary's 
reasons,  and  led  to  a  still  more  prolonged  debate,  in  the 
course  of  which  Mr.  Binney,  on  January  7,  1834,  and  suc 
ceeding  days,  addressed  the  House  at  considerable  length.3 


2  Cong.  Deb.,  vol.  x.  pp.  2207, 
8  Ibid.,  pp.  2320,  2364. 
106 


1834]  SERVICE    IN    CONGRESS 

His  opening  remarks  show  some  of  the  intensity  of  his  feel 
ing  upon  the  subject  under  discussion,  and  also  contain  a 
significant  reference  to  his  own  independence  of  party,  as 
well  as  to  the  fact,  confirmed  by  contemporaneous  letters, 
that  he  had  already  resolved,  although  the  session  was  but  a 
few  weeks  old,  not  to  serve  more  than  a  single  term.  He 
said, — 

I  mean  to  discuss  this  great  question,  sir,  as  I  think  it  becomes 
me  to  discuss  it  on  my  first  entrance  into  this  House;  as  it  would 
become  any  one  to  discuss  it  having  the  few  relations  to  extreme  party 
that  I  have,  and  being  desirous,  for  the  short  time  that  he  means  to 
be  connected  with  the  station,  to  do  or  omit  nothing  that  shall  be  the 
occasion  of  painful  retrospect.  I  mean  to  discuss  it  as  gravely  and 
temperately  as  I  can;  not,  sir,  because  it  is  not  a  fit  subject  for  the 
most  animated  and  impassioned  appeals  to  every  fear  and  hope  that 
a  patriot  can  entertain  for  his  country, — for  I  hold,  without  doubt, 
that  it  is  so, — but  because,  as  the  defence  of  the  measure  to  be  exam 
ined  comes  to  this  House  under  the  name  and  in  the  guise  of  "  reason." 
I  deem  it  fit  to  receive  it,  and  to  try  its  pretentions  by  the  standard 
to  which  it  appeals.  .  .  . 

Mr.  Speaker,  the  change  produced  in  this  country  in  the  short 
space  of  three  months  is  without  example  in  the  history  of  this  or 
any  other  nation.  The  past  summer  found  the  people  delighted  or 
contented  with  the  apparent  adjustment  of  some  of  the  most  fearful 
controversies  that  ever  divided  them.  The  Chief  Magistrate  of  the 
Union  had  entered  upon  his  office  for  another  term,  and  was  receiving 
more  than  the  honours  of  a  Roman  triumph  from  the  happy  people 
of  the  Middle  and  Northern  States,  without  distinction  of  party,  age, 
or  sex.  Nature  promised  to  the  husbandman  an  exuberant  crop. 
Trade  was  replenishing  the  coffers  of  the  nation  and  rewarding  the 
merchant's  enterprise.  The  spindle,  the  shuttle,  and  every  instru 
ment  of  mechanic  industry  were  pushing  their  busy  labours  with 
profit.  Internal  improvements  were  bringing  down  the  remotest  West 
to  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic,  and  binding  and  compacting  the  dis- 

107 


HORACE    BINNEY  [M-s.  54, 

persed  inhabitants  of  this  immense  territory  as  the  inhabitants  of  a 
single  State.  One  universal  smile  beamed  from  the  happy  face  of 
this  favoured  country.  But,  sir,  we  have  had  a  fearful  admonition 
that  we  hold  all  such  treasures  in  earthen  vessels;  and  a  still  more 
fearful  one  that  misjudging  man,  either  in  error  or  in  anger,  may, 
in  a  moment,  dash  them  to  the  earth  and  break  into  a  thousand  frag 
ments  the  finest  creations  of  industry  and  intelligence. 

After  briefly  describing  the  currency  system,  he  con 
tinued  : 

In  an  instant,  sir,  almost  in  the  midst  of  the  smiling  scene  I 
have  described,  without  any  preparation  of  the  country  at  large,  with 
nothing  by  way  of  notice  but  a  menace,  which  no  one  but  the  bank 
itself,  and  she  only  from  the  instinct  of  self-preservation,  seems  to 
have  respected,  this  most  delicate  of  all  the  instruments  of  political 
economy  has  been  assaulted,  deranged,  dislocated;  and  the  whole 
scene  of  enchantment  has  vanished,  as  by  the  command  of  a  wizard. 
The  State  banks  are  paralyzed ;  they  can  do,  or  they  will  do,  nothing. 
The  Bank  of  the  United  States  stands  upon  her  own  defence.  She 
can  do,  or  she  will  do,  nothing,  until  she  knows  the  full  extent  of  the 
storm  that  is  to  follow,  and  measures  her  own  ability  to  meet  it. 
Prices  are  falling,  domestic  exchange  is  falling,  bank-notes  are  fall 
ing,  stocks  are  falling,  and  in  some  instances  have  fallen  dead.  The 
gravitation  of  the  system  is  disturbed  and  its  loss  threatened ;  and,  it 
being  the  work  of  man,  and  directed  only  by  his  limited  wisdom,  there 
is  no  La  Place  or  Bowditch  that  can  foretell  the  extent  or  the  mischief 
of  the  derangement,  or  in  what  new  contrivance  a  compensation  may 
be  found  for  the  disturbing  force. 

Sir,  whence  has  come  this  derangement?  It  comes  from  the 
act  of  the  Secretary  in  removing  the  deposits,  and  in  declaring  the 
doctrine  of  an  unregulated,  uncontrolled  State  bank  paper  currency. 
It  is  against  all  true  philosophy  to  assign  more  causes  than  are  suffi 
cient  to  produce  the  ascertained  effect.  This  cause  is  sufficient ;  that 
I  verily  believe  has  produced  it ;  and  I  hope  for  the  patient  attention 

108 


1834]  SERVICE    IN    CONGRESS 

of  the  House  in  my  humble  efforts  hereafter  to  show  that  nothing 
else  has  produced  it. 

Sir,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  has,  in  my  poor  judgment, 
committed  one  error  which  is  wholly  inexcusable;  it  is,  in  part,  the 
error  of  the  argument  that  has  proceeded  from  the  honourable  mem 
ber  from  Tennessee  [Mr.  Polk].  That  error  lies  in  supposing  that 
there  were  but  two  subjects  to  be  considered  in  coming  to  his  decision 
upon  the  deposits, — the  administration  and  the  bank.  The  country 
has  been  forgotten.  The  administration  was  to  vindicate  its  opin 
ions.  The  bank  was  to  be  made  to  give  way  to  them.  The  conse 
quences  were  to  be  left  to  those  whom  they  might  concern;  and  they 
are  such  as  moderate  human  wisdom  might  have  foreseen,  such  as 
are  now  before  us.  While  the  administration  is  apparently  strong 
and  the  bank  undisturbed,  the  country  lies  stunned  and  stupefied  by 
the  blow ;  and  it  is  now  for  this  House  to  say  whether  they  will  con 
tinue  the  error,  by  forgetting  the  country  here  also,  or  will  endeavour 
to  raise  her  to  her  feet  and  assist  her  in  recovering  from  the  shaft 
that  was  aimed  at  the  bank  but  has  glanced  aside  and  fallen  on  her 
own  bosom. 

Mr.  Binney  proceeded  to  explain  the  operation  of  the 
bank-note  system  and  the  contraction  of  the  currency  in  con 
sequence  of  the  removal  of  the  deposits,  and  he  then  reviewed 
and  answered  the  Secretary's  reason  in  detail,  finally  con 
cluding  as  follows : 

It  ought  not  to  be,  it  cannot  be,  that  such  questions  shall  be 
decided  in  this  House  as  party  questions.  The  question  of  the  bank 
is  one  of  public  faith;  that  of  the  currency  is  a  question  of  national 
prosperity;  that  of  the  constitutional  control  of  the  currency  is  a 
question  of  national  existence.  It  is  impossible  that  such  momentous 
interests  shall  be  tried  and  determined  by  those  rules  and  standards 
which,  in  things  indifferent  in  themselves,  parties  usually  resort  to. 
They  concern  our  country  at  home  and  abroad,  now  and  at  all  future 
times ;  they  concern  the  cause  of  freedom  everywhere ;  and  if  they 
shall  be  settled  under  the  influence  of  any  considerations  but  justice 

109 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JBx.  54 

and  patriotism, — sacred  justice  and  enlightened  patriotism, — the  de 
jected  friends  of  freedom  dispersed  throughout  the  earth,  the  patriots 
of  this  land  and  the  patriots  of  all  lands,  must  finally  surrender  their 
extinguished  hopes  to  the  bitter  conviction  that  the  spirit  of  party  is 
a  more  deadly  foe  to  free  institutions  than  the  spirit  of  despotism. 

An  attack  on  the  removal  of  the  deposits  was  of  course 
an  attack  upon  the  President,  who  had  instructed  the  Secre 
tary  to  remove  them,  and  had  made  no  secret  of  his  hostility 
to  the  bank.  Moreover,  Mr.  Binney  did  not  hesitate  to  con 
demn  the  course  pursued  by  the  government  directors  of  the 
bank,  the  President's  appointees.  At  the  same  time  the 
speech  was  purely  an  appeal  to  reason,  and  contained  not  a 
word  of  invective  or  abuse.  With  all  his  faults,  "  Old 
Hickory"  4  appreciated  courteous  treatment,  and  it  is  said 
that,  having  asked  one  of  his  friends  about  the  speech,  and 
being  told,  "  He  spoke  very  strongly,  but  he  treated  you 
like  a  gentleman,"  the  President  said,  "  Then  you  may  ask 
him  to  dinner."  What  followed  is  best  gathered  from  Mr. 
Binney's  letter  of  January  10  to  his  son: 

I  give  you  a  little  recital  for  the  benefit  of  Mama;  but  in  con 
fidence,  unless  you  hear  of  it  elsewhere.  A  friend  of  yours  dined 
yesterday  with  the  President.  When  he  entered  the  room  the  Presi 
dent  advanced,  and,  taking  him  by  the  hand,  asked  him  to  take  a 
seat  on  the  sofa  by  him,  and  began  a  familiar  and  friendly  conversa 
tion  with  him.  As  other  gentlemen  came  in,  the  President  rose,  shook 
hands  with  them,  and  then  returned  to  his  chair  and  talk.  The  party 
amounted  to  about  thirty,  of  whom  eight  or  ten  might  have  been  of  k 
the  party  opposed  to  the  President,  the  rest  his  friends.  After  sitting 
by  the  President's  side  as  long  as  consistent  with  good  breeding,  your 
friend  got  up  and  walked  across  the  room  to  engage  in  general  con- 


4  Mr.  Binney  said  that  "  Old  Peperidge"  would  have  been  more  apt  a  name, 
as  Jackson  could  neither  be  bent  nor  split. 

110 


1834]  SERVICE    IN    CONGRESS 

versation  with  the  guests,  and  was  remote  from  the  President  when 
dinner  was  announced.  The  President  then  called  your  friend  by 
name,  approached  him,  put  his  arm  into  your  friend's  arm,  said, 
"  Let  me  have  the  pleasure  of  shewing  you  in  to  dinner,"  and  then 
placed  him  at  his  right  hand,  where  he  shewed  him,  as  his  aids  at  the 
end  of  the  table  did,  a  succession  of  the  most  obliging  civilities,  of 
the  most  marked  and  striking  kind,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end 
of  a  really  excellent  dinner  in  every  possible  sense.  This  was  amusing 
enough.  Your  friend  had  just  finished  a  three  days'  speech,  battering 
down  to  the  best  of  his  poor  abilities  a  good  deal  of  the  Cabinet  doc 
trines;  speaking  all  manner  of  evil  of  it,  but  not  calling  any  one  a 
harder  name  than  was  necessary ;  and  all  this  civility  I  have  no  doubt 
was  intended  to  shew  a  sense  of  the  urbanity  with  which  the  argument 
was  conducted.  It  makes  quite  a  talk  here,  and  I  suppose  will  go 
further. 

It  is  reported  that  when  Mr.  Binney  came  to  the  White 
House,  the  President  said,  "  Pardon  me  for  taking  the  lib 
erty  to  send  for  you,  Mr.  Binney,  but  I  wish  to  say  that  I 
have  read  your  speech,  which  is  the  most  powerful  that  has 
been  made  on  your  side  in  Congress.  I  cannot,  of  course, 
thank  you  for  the  strength  of  your  argument,  but  I  am 
happy  to  know  as  an  adversary  one  who  does  not  conceive  it 
necessary  to  employ  invective  against  a  public  officer  who 
believes  that  he,  too,  is  discharging  his  duty  faithfully." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  while  this  anecdote  has  some  foun 
dation,  the  President  could  hardly  have  said  that  he  had  read 
the  speech.  He  may  have  seen  a  condensed  report  of  it,  but 
no  complete  stenographic  report  was  made,  and  in  order  that 
it  should  be  printed  in  full  (which  was  then  thought  very 
important),  Mr.  Binney  was  compelled  by  his  colleagues  to 
write  it  all  out,  a  task  not  completed  until  some  days  after 
the  dinner  at  the  White  House.  The  speech  was  regarded 
as  a  forensic  triumph,  and  congratulations  poured  in,  but 

in 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  54 

were  powerless  to  reconcile  Mr.  Binney  to  public  life,  as 
some  portions  of  his  letters  to  his  son  show  very  clearly. 


January  11.  I  am  now  writing  out  parts  of  my  abominable 
speech.  For  all  the  praise  of  all  the  men  that  have  lived  or  are  to  live, 
I  do  not  think  I  would  go  through  the  labour  of  speaking  this  speech 
or  writing  it  again.  To  speak  it  was  bad  enough,  in  all  conscience, 
but  to  be  forced  to  write  it,  in  order  to  avoid  disgrace,  is  too  bad. 
I  do  not  love  praise  enough  for  this,  and,  indeed,  my  mind  has  been 
so  darkened  by  an  incident  of  last  autumn,  that  I  almost  hate  to 
receive  it.  My  conscience  is  my  only  praise,  and  that,  as  I  well  know, 
is  no  flatterer.  Nothing  is  gained  by  praise.  The  more  some  men 
give  of  it,  the  more  others  hate  you  for  it.  You  see  I  am  very  cynical. 
Mr.  Sergeant,  who  writes  me  often  (Mr.  Chauncey  never  does),  says 
he  does  not  see  now  how  I^ap  to  leave  public  life.  I  tell  him  that  if  I 


*^S 
wanted  bread,  and  Schiveljrhad  a  wheel,  I  would  turn  it  in  preference. 

If  I  could  have  passed  my  winter  in  Tristan  d'Acunha  with  a  chance 
of  getting  off  in  the  spring,  I  should  have  preferred  it.  Public  life ! 
Public  death  is  the  better  name  for  it.  No,  I  have  tried  to  do  my 
duty,  and  I  have  laboured  more  in  two  months  to  do  it  than  some  men 
do  in  two  years.  I  mean  to  have  done  with  it. 

January  15.  As  to  my  enviable  situation,  my  son,  when  I  shall 
derive  my  happiness  from  what  I  hear,  and  not  from  what  I  feel,  and 
from  the  contradiction  of  all  established  habits  and  affections  without 
contracting  new  ones, — above  all,  when  I  can  be  happy  in  a  place 
where  the  greatest  exertion  does  not  attain  the  object  it  is  directed 
to,  and  where  the  sight  of  our  country's  degradation  is  never  a  moment 
from  before  my  eye, — then  I  may  be  happy  in  my  present  position. 
In  the  mean  time  the  lament  must  be  for  the  false  estimate  of  happi 
ness  by  the  world,  and  not  for  the  false  constitution  of  mine. 

January  £0.  I  find  all  my  powers  crushed  under  a  weight 
of  mechanical  labour,  from  which  I  have  made  a  positive  determina 
tion  to  escape.  I  am  the  slave  of  every  man  who  wants  anything 
done  here,  of  any  sort,  public  or  private.  I  dread  the  mail  as  much 
as  a  negro  dreads  the  whip  of  his  driver. 

112 

*'•  $ 

- 

ftetf  Q*tf 


1834]  SERVICE    IN    CONGRESS 

February  4.  We  have  had  a  brush  again  in  the  House  to-day, 
and  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  have  the  same  attention  given  me  as 
before.  The  party  ranks  were  broken  to  some  extent,  and  although 
we  lost,  it  was  by  one  vote  only, — 107  to  106.  It  was  a  mere  question 
to  refer  the  President's  message  on  the  refusal  of  the  bank  to  deliver 
over  the  books  and  money  of  the  Pension  Fund  to  the  Girard  Bank. 
Our  motion  was  to  refer  it  to  the  Judiciary  Committee,  the  other  to 
refer  to  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means.  The  mortifying  thing 
was  that  the  absence  of  our  own  men  from  the  House,  as  is  supposed, 
lost  us  the  vote.  It  was  after  five  when  question  was  taken,  and  this 
has  been  the  question  two  successive  days.  You  may  imagine  how  this 
agrees  with  my  health. 

February  5.  The  derangement  of  my  health  has  perhaps 
alarmed  you  too  much.  The  kind  of  life  led  here  in  the  House  is 
entirely  out  of  the  question.  My  mind  is  fully  made  up  to  it,  and  I  do 
not  mean  further  to  expose  my  chance  of  future  comfort  in  life  by 
continuing  at  it.  It  is  wholly  impossible,  and  for  reasons  I  will  not 
commit  to  writing.  My  eyes  suffer  seriously,  but  I  am  in  hopes 
to  save  enough  of  them  for  a  basis  on  which  to  work  a  restoration 
hereafter.  I  intend  if  possible  to  return  with  Mr.  Sergeant,  but 
it  is  a  lamentable  condition  to  be  unable  to  say  whether  this  will 
or  will  not  be  practicable.  It  was  beyond  my  power  to  conceive 
that  the  thraldom  would  be  what  it  is. 


(To  Hon.  D.A.  White.) 

WASHINGTON,  15  Feb.  1834. 

I  wish  that  my  disordered  eyes  permitted  me  to  reply  as  I 
ought  to  your  kind  letter  of  the  8th,  but  the  change  of  habits  to 
which  I  had  been  long  accustomed,  and  the  necessity  of  using  candle 
light  to  a  much  greater  degree  than  I  have  done  for  some  years,  have 
so  deranged  me  that  writing  has  become  painful,  and  I  avoid  all  of  it 
that  the  business  of  my  seat  in  Congress  enables  me  to  do.  Still  I 
have  so  much  pleasure  to  counterbalance  the  pain,  while  writing  in 
acknowledgment  of  your  recollection  of  me,  that  I  mention  it  now 

8  113 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  54. 

only  to  introduce  a  request  that  you  will  again  write  to  me  without 
caring  for  a  regular  reply.  The  argument  on  the  deposits  has  re 
ceived  more  praise  than  it  deserves,  and  principally,  I  believe,  because 
its  pretensions  were  not  such  as  to  provoke  criticism.  The  state  of 
things  here  is  inconceivably  bad.  There  is  a  want  of  knowledge,  cer 
tainly  not  surpassed  in  any  State  Legislature  that  I  have  known  of, 
not  meaning,  however,  to  speak  of  particulars,  but  of  the  mass.  Per 
haps  I  ought  to  say  a  want  of  that  kind  of  knowledge  which  the 
times  require.  There  is,  what  is  more  to  be  regretted,  a  spirit  of  devo 
tion  to  party  that  seems  willing  to  surrender  to  it  the  Constitution, 
the  laws,  and  the  happiness  of  the  country ;  and  this  is  not  surprising, 
since  the  object  of  party  devotion  is  party  itself.  The  selfish  prin 
ciple  rules  and  overrules  everything,  and  men  care  not  what  they 
sacrifice  to  it,  as  they  believe  or  hope  that  they  are  to  be  gainers  by 
all  they  sacrifice.  It  is  said  by  gentlemen  in  daily  debate  that  the 
disease  is  idolatry,  and  that  Jackson  is  the  idol.  This  is  a  mistake: 
the  idol  is  party,  party  ascendency  and  power,  and  he  is  at  present 
only  the  priest,  and  I  entertain  no  such  expectation  as  that  his  death 
or  retirement  will  bring  men  to  their  senses.  Suffering  may  do  so, 
for  that  will  touch  the  diseased  heart,  and  possibly  soften  it;  but 
nothing  else  will  cure  the  universal  malady. 

I  will  not  express  my  disappointment  to  you  at  the  general 
condition  of  things  in  and  out  of  the  House  as  I  discern  it  here.  It 
is  sufficient  for  me  to  say,  and  this  you  will  regard  perhaps  as  evidence 
that  the  malady  has  also  infected  me,  that  this  is  not  the  place  for 
me,  and  that  I  must  go  back,  as  fast  as  I  can,  to  the  more  useful  as 
well  as  improving  duties  that  I  gave  up  to  come  here.  I  think  of  you, 
and  have  always  thought  of  you  since  our  college  life,  with  great 
affection,  and  it  will  really  add  to  my  comfort  while  I  stay  here  if  you 
will  occasionally  let  me  hear  from  you. 

The  debate  over  Folk's  motion  and  McDuffie's  amend 
ment  was  the  great  debate  of  the  session,  and,  in  fact,  the 
greatest  that  occurred  during  several  sessions.  It  was  par 
ticipated  in  by  many  of  the  leading  men  on  both  sides  of 

114 


1834]  SERVICE    IN    CONGRESS 

the  House,  but  ended  on  February  18  in  victory  for  the 
Jackson  party,  as  a  letter  of  that  date  mentions. 

We  did  not  sit  later  than  half-past  five  yesterday,  and  I,  of 
course,  resumed  my  argument  in  the  Supreme  Court  this  morning, 
with  some  freshness  and  pretty  good  effect.5  I  went  on  till  one,  when 
the  court  adjourned  in  consequence  of  the  death  of  Mr.  Wirt.  On 
my  returning  to  the  House,  I  found  the  call  for  the  previous  question 
on  the  deposits,  which  we  lost  by  four  votes,  and  this  cutting  off  the 
instructions  proposed  by  Mr.  McDuffie,  and  leaving  nothing  but  the 
question  of  reference  to  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  we  lost 
that  by  a  vote  of  130  to  96,  several  of  the  friends  of  the  bank  voting 
for  the  reference,  because,  as  one  of  them  said,  nothing  else  could  be 
done  with  the  Secretary's  letter.  Having  had  no  hope  before,  I  have 
no  less  now. 

A  letter  to  Mr.  Wallace,  written  on  the  25th,  gives  some 
insight  into  the  general  situation  as  Mr.  Binney  viewed  it. 

If  any  change  is  to  be  effected,  it  must  be  by  the  people,  and 
not,  I  fear,  by  their  present  Representatives,  either  here  or  at  Harris- 
burg.  The  pride  of  opinion,  the  shame  of  apparent  inconsistency, 
and  here  the  application  of  an  influence  of  the  most  potent  kind,  keep 
the  present  Representatives,  at  least  some  of  them,  in  opposition  to 


6Carrington  vs.  The  Merchants'  Insurance  Co.  (8  Pet.,  495),  a  suit  on  a 
policy  excluding  liability  for  the  consequences  of  seizure  on  account  of  trade  in 
articles  contraband  of  war.  The  contraband  articles  had  been  landed  in  Chile 
before  the  Spanish  authorities  seized  the  vessel,  but  as  it  had  had  false  papers, 
the  court  held,  under  the  English  rule,  that  the  seizure  was  authorized,  and  dis 
charged  the  insurers.  Referring  to  this  case,  many  years  afterwards,  Mr.  Binney 
wrote:  "  I  once  satisfied  myself,  and  thought  I  had  satisfied  the  Supreme  Court 
(I  did  satisfy  Chief  Justice  Marshall),  that  England  has  wrested  (twisted)  the 
old  established  law  of  nations  as  to  contraband  in  her  own  favour.  A  predominant 
navy  is  a  great  law-maker  on  its  own  side.  The  Continentals  are  much  more 
impartial,  and  more  disposed  to  favour  the  weak,  the  neutral,  and  the  peaceable, 
and  so  it  ought  to  be."  Apparently  the  chief  justice  was  less  influenced  by  Mr. 
Binney's  argument  than  the  latter  had  supposed,  as  the  report  of  the  case  does 
not  mention  any  dissent. 

115 


HORACE    BINNEY  [M-s.  54 

the  known  sense  of  their  constituents.  Still  we  are  not  without  hope, 
as,  indeed,  who  is?  The  great  teacher  is  not  only  death,  but  disease 
which  threatens  death,  and  possibly  the  instruction  may  come  in  time 
to  avert  catastrophe.  The  doctors  must  not  despair. 

On  March  4  Mr.  Polk  presented  the  majority  report6 
of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  submitting  four  reso 
lutions, — viz.,  that  the  bank  should  not  be  rechartered,  that 
the  deposits  should  not  be  returned  to  it,  that  they  should  be 
made  in  the  State  banks,  and  that  the  alleged  corruptions 
and  abuses  in  the  bank's  management  should  be  investigated. 
On  the  same  day  Mr.  Binney  presented  the  minority  report, 
which  he  had  himself  prepared,  and  which  was  also  signed  by 
Mr.  R.  H.  Wilde,  of  Georgia,  and  Mr.  Benjamin  Gorham, 
of  Massachusetts.  The  latter  report  reviewed  the  Secretary's 
reasons  for  removing  the  deposits,  declared  them  insufficient, 
and  stated  that  the  deposits  ought  to  be  returned,  whether  the 
bank  was  to  be  rechartered  or  not.  On  March  12  the  reports 
were  taken  up,  and  more  debate  followed,  resulting  in  the 
passage  of  the  Committee's  resolutions  on  April  4.  During 
this  debate  Mr.  Binney  wrote  as  follows : 

March  19.  I  do  not  write  to  you  about  politics,  but  I  am 
satisfied  that  party  will  prevent  the  remedy  of  the  disease  that  party 
has  caused.  Keep  yourself  out  of  it.  I  perceive  it  to  be  the  miserable 
concern  I  have  always  supposed  it.  When  I  am  asked  to  do  anything 
again  for  public  good,  I  will  answer  that  I  shall  be  ready  to  do  it 
when  there  is  either  no  leader  at  all,  or  only  one,  or,  if  you  please,, 
more  who  concur.  The  strength  of  the  administration  is  in  the  ele-1 
ments  of  which  the  opposition  is  composed,  and  they  know  it. 

March  23.  I  have  no  copies  of  the  minority  report,  except 
what  are  placed  on  my  table,  a  few  at  a  time,  but  I  will  try  to  send 
you  some.  There  has  been  a  trick  practised  in  regard  to  this  report 


e  House  Kept.  No.  312,  23d  Cong.,  1st  sess.    The  minority  report  is  No.  313. 

116 


1834]  SERVICE   IN   CONGRESS 

that  is  worthy  of  the  men  and  of  the  times.  Hitherto  minority  reports 
(which  are  a  late  invention)  were  regarded  as  part  of  the  same  docu 
ment  with  the  report  of  the  Committee,  numbered  with  the  same 
number,  printed  and  stitched  together.  But  an  order  was  given  by 
a  certain  person  to  give  the  minority  report  an  advanced  number,  by 
which  the  two  reports  became  different  documents,  and  are  printed 
and  stitched  and  sent  separately,  and  consequently  all  who  wish  to 
have  the  majority  side  alone  presented  do  not  send  the  other.  In 
general,  the  step  has  given  dissatisfaction,  but  that  is  nothing.  All 
I  need  say  is,  that  I  have  not  kept  much  of  this  kind  of  company. 
I  am  sorry  the  young  men  have  come.  The  repetition  of  committee 
upon  committee  from  our  city  7  is  not  only  a  great  annoyance,  but — 
no  matter. 

Although  Mr.  Binney  was  undoubtedly  the  champion  of 
the  United  States  Bank  in  the  House,  as  regards  the  issues 
between  it  and  the  government,  he  was  not  connected  with 
the  bank,  officially  or  professionally,  in  any  way  whatever. 
Hence  on  March  15  he  successfully  represented  the  other 
side  in  Bank  of  the  United  States  vs.  Donnelly,8  a  case  in 
volving  the  application  of  the  lex  fori  to  a  suit  on  a  note, 
even  though  the  result  of  a  suit  brought  in  the  State  where 
the  note  was  made  would  have  been  different. 

Up  to  this  time  the  bank  had  consistently  adhered  to  the 
policy  of  reducing  its  discounts  and  gradually  curtailing  its 
circulation  (which  exceeded  $18,000,000)  preparatory  to 
winding  up  its  business,  unless  the  administration  party 
should  recede  from  its  refusal  to  grant  a  new  charter.  Mr. 
Binney  thoroughly  approved  this  course,  and  while  he  had 


7  Meetings  in  favor  of  the  renewal  of  the  charter  and  return  of  the  deposits 
were  repeatedly  held  all  through  this  winter,  in  Philadelphia  and  other  cities, 
committees  of  citizens  were  perpetually  arriving,  and  memorials  being  presented 
to  Congress.  Mr.  Binney  had  little  confidence  in  such  demonstrations. 

18  8  Pet.,  361. 

117 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^BT.  54 


no  direct  correspondence  with  the  president  of  the  bank,  Mr. 
Nicholas  Biddle,  he  was  kept  sufficiently  posted  as  to  what 
the  bank  was  doing.  The  strain  of  Mr.  Biddle's  repeated 
declarations  was  this  :  "  The  Allegheny  hills  may  come  down 
to  the  sea,  but  we  shall  not  change  an  iota  of  our  plan.  Our 
friends  can  rely  upon  it.  Others  may  change,  but  we  cannot, 
must  not,  will  not."  Accordingly,  whenever  any  of  Mr.  Bin- 
ney's  colleagues  expressed  a  doubt  of  the  bank's  persever 
ance,  he  had  no  hesitation  in  declaring  his  thorough  confi 
dence  in  it.  If  the  bank  was  to  wind  up  its  business  without 
loss,  within  the  time  allowed,  the  gradual  contraction  of  its 
circulation  was  a  necessity,  while  the  effect  of  such  a  con 
traction  upon  business  was  the  surest  means  of  arousing  such 
a  public  opinion  against  the  President's  policy  as  would 
compel  him  to  abandon  it. 

Suddenly  Mr.  Binney  learned  that  Mr.  Biddle,  at  the 
instance  of  Mr.  Gallatin  and  others  in  New  York,  had  agreed 
to  let  the  State  banks  extend  their  discounts  without  being 
called  upon  by  the  United  States  Bank  for  the  balances  due 
it,  up  to  a  certain  time.  This  half-way  measure  was  in  effect 
a  complete  reversal  of  the  bank's  policy,  and  an  abandonment 
of  its  only  practical  weapon  of  defence  against  the  adminis 
tration.  From  the  day  that  the  news  came  Mr.  Binney  never 
spoke  again  in  the  House  in  regard  to  the  bank's  affairs. 
The  following  passages  are  found  in  his  letters  written  about 
that  time. 

March  £4.  Such  has  been  the  extraordinary  act  of  the  Bank 
U.  S.  in  making  the  agreement  with  the  State  banks  at  New  York, 
that  I  am  as  much  relieved  from  duty  as  if  I  were  knocked  in  the  head. 
My  friend  Mr.  Chauncey  has  consented  to  a  great  mistake.  I  have 
written  him  and  he  has  written  me.  L'affaire  est  ftnie.  I  mention 
this  that  you  may  be  on  your  guard. 

April  6.  My  investments  are  all  as  good  as  possible,  but  what 

118 


1834]  SERVICE    IN    CONGRESS 

is  to  continue  good  is  a  question  of  deep,  unfathomable  doubt  and 
uncertainty.  There  is  so  much  nervous  excitement  here  that  at  times 
I  become  affected  myself,  and  think  everything  in  danger;  at  other 
times,  I  cool  myself  in  a  quiet  walk  over  the  fields,  and  return  with 
huge  doubts  as  to  the  sober  intellects  of  a  great  many  on  both  sides. 
I  have  come  to  but  one  certain  conclusion,  and  that  is  that  my 
judgment  as  to  political  life  has  always  been  right.  As  a  trade,  it  is 
a  species  of  privateering  under  public  commission.  There  is  a  dif 
ference  between  the  craft.  Some  are  pirates  and  buccaneers,  some 
piccaroons  and  marauders,  some  a  gentlemanly  highwayman,  who 
robs  with  a  grace,  and  makes  you  a  present  of  part  of  your  own  goods 
of  which  he  scorns  to  strip  you.  But  all — all  who  follow  the  trade — 
make  a  trade  of  it,  and  [the]  trade  has  but  one  end,  though  the  paths 
to  it  are  various. 

April  9.  I  shall  be  heartily  glad  to  get  home,  and  pray 
Heaven  I  may  never  return  here.  If  I  had  leisure,  I  would  try  to 
awaken  this  country  to  such  a  state  of  feeling  as  would  make  it 
thought  infamous  to  stay  from  the  polls  on  any  account.  Men  take 
care  of  their  parchment  deeds  and  certificates  of  stock,  and  let  rogues 
go  to  the  polls  and  destroy  them.  The  field  is  there.  If  that  is  won, 
this  House  will  be ;  if  not,  nothing  here  will  restore  the  day.  I  speak 
for  any  portion  of  future  time.  Our  children  are  disinherited  by  our 
supineness. 

April  12.  You  will  see  the  speech  of  Mr.  Adams  (suppressed 
by  the  previous  question)  in  the  National  Intelligencer  of  the  morn 
ing,  and  the  obliging  manner  in  which  he  speaks  of  me  and  of  my 
argument,  better  than  either  deserve.  I  had  a  few  days  ago  to  differ 
with  him  and  some  others  of  our  own  side  upon  a  small  appropriation 
item  to  pay  a  clerk  for  arranging  and  making  indexes  to  the  Archives 
of  Government  in  the  Department  of  State.  The  discussion,  which 
was  sharply  party,  compelled  me  to  speak,  as  I  had  determined  to  vote 
for  it,  and  did  not  wish  my  vote  misunderstood.9  Many  of  the  Jack 
son  men  voted  against  it,  some  of  our  friends  voted  for  it.  Such  is 


9  Cong.  Deb.,  vol.  x.,  pt.  iii.,  3566. 
119 


HORACE    BINNEY  [_MT.  54 

the  state  of  feeling  here,  that  it  is  probable  we  shall  be  a  month  on 
what  used  to  be  passed  by  the  title.  Unfortunately  the  debate  began 
on  the  only  item  in  the  bill  in  favour  of  which  I  had  said  a  word  in 
comirittee.  I  regretted  it,  but  I  have  that  within  which,  if  I  stand 
alone,  will  make  me  do  what  I  think  right. 

In  April  Mr.  Binney  was  able  to  spend  a  few  days  at 
home,  and  the  next  three  letters  relate  to  what  occurred  on 
the  return  journey.  President  Jackson's  extraordinary 
"  Protest"  against  a  resolution  of  the  Senate,  condemning 
his  proceedings  "  in  relation  to  the  public  revenue,"  had  ap 
peared  on  the  17th,  and  had  caused  considerable  excitement. 

WASHINGTON,  21  Apr.  1834. 
DEAR  H.,— 

I  am  again  safely  here,  having  arrived  last  night  at  eleven. 
My  journey  was  very  pleasant,  until  we  met  the  upward  boat,  which 
threw  a  letter  on  board  from  Baltimore,  apprizing  Webster  of  the 
preparation  for  him,  and  the  consequence  of  which  I  foresaw  as  to 
myself.  On  our  arrival  we  saw  perhaps  ten  thousand  persons  lining 
the  shores,  flags  flying,  etc.  Mr.  Webster  mounted  the  upper  deck 
and  addressed  the  multitude.  I  got  out  or  was  forced  out  of  the  boat, 
my  baggage  being  taken  I  knew  not  where.  After  being  hustled 
along  to  the  outer  verge,  I  heard  my  name  called  out  to  address  the 
sovereign  also;  but  being  very  desirous  to  avoid  it,  I  went  to  the 
Exchange  10  and  sat  a  moment  with  Mr.  Everett  on  his  way  to  Phila 
delphia.  I  then  started  to  rejoin  my  compagnons  de  voyage,  and 
took  my  way  to  Barnum's.  As  I  turned  the  corner,  to  my  astonish 
ment  Mr.  Webster  was  at  it  again,  and  the  street  covered  with  a  dense 
mass  of  thousands.  When  he  finished,  the  same  cry  went  forth  for 
myself,  as  they  supposed  I  was  in  the  house,  and,  being  recognized, 
I  had  no  alternative  but  to  say  a  dozen  words,  which  I  have  already 
forgotten.  The  excitement,  hurras,  etc.,  etc.,  were  extraordinary, 
and  evidence  of  extreme  irritation.  I  ask  absolution  of  my  good 


The  Exchange  and  Barnum's  were  then  the  leading  hotels  in  Baltimore. 

120 


1834]  SERVICE    IN    CONGRESS 

bishops  for  this  Sunday's  misconduct.  Think  of  it,  and  think  of 
what  public  life  might  make  of  me.  When  I  got  to  Barnum's  I  was 
hot  in  every  sense,  and  I  scarcely  knew  myself  any  better  than  I  was 
known.  I  am  ashamed,  and  I  am  glad  of  it. 


WASHINGTON,  22  Apr.  '34. 
DEAR  H.,— 

Your  No.  126  is  received.  I  am  glad  to  be  advised  of  your 
welfare  to  the  close  of  the  day  that  I  left  you.  I  have  nothing  to 
say,  but  that  a  great  alarm  for  my  eye,  in  which  I  took  cold  in  the 
heat  of  the  Baltimore  crowd  and  in  the  cool  of  the  night  ride,  is 
abated:  it  is  nearly  well  to-day.  The  Sunday's  work  has  finally 
made  me  smile,  while  at  first  it  made  me  frown.  It  was  a  queer  affair, 
and  I  am  happy  to  find  by  the  papers  that  they  have  made  sense  of 
what  I  said.11 


11  "Messrs.  Webster  and  Binney  arrived  yesterday  afternoon  in  the  steam 
boat  'Washington'  from  Philadelphia.  Long  before  the  steamboat  touched  the 
wharf  the  citizens  assembled  to  the  number  of  several  thousands,  and  completely 
blocked  up  the  approach  to  the  boat.  Mr.  Webster  addressed  the  people  from 
the  deck  of  the  steamboat,  but  many  endeavoured  in  vain  to  reach  within  hearing 
distance.  After  he  concluded  there  was  a  general  rush  to  Barnum's,  where  on 
his  arrival  he  again  spoke  for  a  short  time  with  his  usual  force  and  felicity.  .  .  . 

"When  Mr.  Webster  closed  there  was  a  general  call  for  Mr.  Binney,  who 
appeared  and  delivered  some  pointed  and  patriotic  remarks.  He  said  he  had  no 
fears  for  the  result  of  the  present  contest.  The  people  were  competent  to  keep 
their  public  servants  within  legitimate  limits;  that  usurpations  always  commenced 
by  tampering  with  the  public  funds;  that  so  long  as  the  laws  were  permitted  to 
govern  we  possessed  the  means  to  restrain  authority  within  proper  bounds,  but 
that  if  the  laws  failed  to  afford  the  remedy  for  abuses,  the  people  possessed  the 
physical  power  to  maintain  their  rights;  that  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the 
country  must  be  sustained,  peaceably  if  it  can  be  done,  by  force  if  it  is  necessary. 

"  Mr.  Binney  made  a  happy  allusion  to  the  former  prosperity  of  Baltimore, 
and  the  present  depressed  condition  of  trade,  resulting  from  the  experiment  now 
making  by  the  President.  He  concluded  amidst  the  highest  manifestations  of 
satisfaction."  (Baltimore  Chronicle  of  April  21,  reprinted  in  Poulson's  Adver 
tiser  of  April  22.) 

If  Mr.  Binney's  irritation  at  being  compelled  to  speak  was  at  all  manifest, 
it  was  ascribed  wholly  to  his  indignation  at  the  President's  course.  He  is  said  to 
have  spoken  with  unusual  warmth  of  manner  and  enthusiasm. 

121 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Bx.  54 

WASHINGTON,  24  Apr.,  1834. 
MY  DEAR  H., — 

.  .  .  This  Sunday's  folly  gives  me  more  pain  than  it  ought 
to.  I  alternately  smile  and  frown.  They  are,  I  find,  lying  about  it, 
as  they  do  about  everything ;  you  can  readily  imagine  how  one  of  my 
disposition  feels  under  the  connection  between  myself  and  any  even 
involuntary  abuse  of  the  day.  In  those  who  know  me  perfectly  it 
raises  the  suspicion  of  insincerity,  and  in  those  who  do  not  it  produces 
the  belief  that  I  am  openly  regardless  of  my  duty.  This  letter  you 
will  of  course  see  is  written  under  the  frown. 

On  May  1  occurred  a  debate  on  an  appropriation  for  the 
salaries  of  ministers  to  England  and  Russia.  The  Senate 
had  not  confirmed  the  President's  appointments,  and  it  was 
generally  understood  that  he  intended  to  commission  the 
ministers  after  the  adjournment.  Mr.  Binney  held  that  such 
an  act  would  be  an  unconstitutional  trespass  on  the  Senate's 
prerogatives,  and  he  opposed  the  appropriation,  but  it  was 
carried. 

The  most  important  contested  election  of  this  Congress 
was  that  of  Mr.  Letcher,  of  Kentucky,  an  ardent  follower 
of  Clay,  and  afterwards  governor  of  the  State,  against  Mr. 
Moore.  The  majority  of  the  Committee  on  Elections  had 
reported  in  favor  of  destroying  Letcher's  majority  by 
striking  off  certain  votes,  cast  by  admittedly  qualified  voters, 
on  account  of  a  failure  of  certain  election  officers  to  comply 
strictly  with  the  law,  though  the  irregularity  was  not  claimed 
to  have  influenced  a  single  vote.  The  Committee  of  the 
Whole  reported  that  no  decision  could  be  made  in  favour 
of  either  party,  and  on  June  11,  when  the  question  was  before 
the  House,  Mr.  Binney  spoke  against  the  report.12  He 
pointed  out  that  it  was  the  constitutional  duty  of  the  House 


12  Cong  Deb.,  vol.  x.  pp.  4451,  4802-4819. 
122 


1834]  SERVICE    IN    CONGRESS 

to  decide  the  case  upon  the  evidence,  which  was  all  before  it, 
and  made  an  exhaustive  argument  on  the  constitutional 
rights  of  voters,  which  he  contended  could  not  be  taken  away 
by  official  errors.  The  principles  which  he  expounded  were 
new  to  most  of  his  hearers,  but  they  were  such  as  should 
always  control  the  decision  of  election  cases,  especially  to-day, 
when  the  official  ballot  system,  by  increasing  official  duties, 
has  necessarily  increased  the  risk  of  errors  for  which  the 
voters  are  in  no  way  responsible.  Partisanship  defeated  his 
efforts,  however,  as  it  did  in  nearly  every  instance  during 
his  short  Congressional  career,  and  the  committee  report 
was  adopted;  but  the  victory  was  a  barren  one,  as  Mr. 
Letcher  was  triumphantly  re-elected.  A  letter  of  June  13 
says, — 

We  had  yesterday  a  considerable  dinner  party,  which  termi 
nated  half -past  eleven  P.M.,  at  our  mess.  Webster  and  myself  being 
side  by  side,  I  told  him  what  you  said  of  his  speech.  You  will  have 
as  much  notion  of  what  I  last  said  in  Letcher's  case  on  Wednesday,  by 
the  sketch  in  the  National  Intelligencer  of  this  day,  as  you  would  of  a 
house  by  seeing  one  of  the  bricks.  I  spoke  half  an  hour  con  ira  and 
con  amore  too,  and  as  an  impromptu  I  was  not  dissatisfied  with  it. 

On  June  21  Mr.  Binney  spoke  in  regard  to  the  bill  to 
regulate  the  coinage,  fixing  that  ratio  of  sixteen  to  one  which 
in  recent  years  has  been  so  sacred  in  the  eyes  of  Mr.  Bryan 
and  the  Populists.  It  seems  strange  to  read  an  argument 
against  this  ratio  as  too  favourable  to  gold,  the  ratio  of  actual 
value  at  the  time  being  15.625  to  1.  Viewed  by  the  light  of  sub 
sequent  experience,  Mr.  Binney's  speech  shows  the  practical 
impossibility  of  long  maintaining  two  legal  tenders  in  circu 
lation  at  the  same  time  when  neither  is  limited  in  quantity,  but 
even  he  did  not  seem  to  have  yet  realized  this,  and  the  speech 
is  distinctly  in  favour  of  a  double  standard  at  the  market  ratio. 

123 


HORACE    BINNEY  MT.  54 


His  amendment  was  adopted,  requiring  a  certain  number  of 
the  gold  coins  of  each  year  to  be  reserved  and  assayed  to  test 
their  fineness.  Nearly  sixty-one  years  later  he  recalled  some 
incidents  of  this  debate,  as  follows:  "When  Tom  Benton 
brought  in  his  bill  to  debase  the  gold  coin,  to  keep  it  from 
flowing  to  Europe,  and  supported  an  elaborate  scheme  based 
upon  that  idea,  I  examined  the  matter  with  some  care,  and 
was  clear  that  it  violated  some  truths  of  history  and  finance, 
but  I  hardly  expected  to  speak,  until  J.  Q.  Adams  came  to 
my  seat  one  day  and  said,  '  Mr.  Binney,  are  you  not  going 
to  speak  on  this  subject?'  I  replied  that  I  thought  speaking 
would  do  no  good,  but  the  next  day,  I  think  it  was,  I  took  the 
floor.  The  House  was  not  more  than  a  third  full  at  the  time, 
but  they  listened  to  me  with  great  attention  in  a  speech  of 
perhaps  an  hour  and  a  half.  When  I  had  done  a  gentleman 
took  the  floor  to  speak  on  the  same  side.  The  House  sud 
denly  filled  as  if  by  magic.  Every  member  was  soon  in  his 
seat,  when  they  commenced  such  coughing  and  scraping  of 
feet  that  the  member  could  not  go  on.  Then  they  called  for 
a  vote,  and  passed  the  measure  without  a  pause.  Here  was 
an  organic  conspiracy  to  carry  through  this  party  measure 
without  reference  to  argument  or  the  honour  of  the  country. 
It  made  an  impression  on  me  at  that  time,  and  showed  how 
thorough  party  training  had  even  then  become."  13 

During  this  season  Mr.  Binney's  seat  was  next  that  of 
Edward  Everett,  whom  he  knew  well  and  esteemed  highly, 
though  not  sharing  all  his  views.  He  also  necessarily  saw 
much  of  Webster,  the  leader  of  the  bank's  cause  in  the  Sen 
ate.  While  Mr.  Binney  had  the  highest  regard  for  Web 
ster's  abilities,  and  would  gladly  have  seen  him  President, 
thinking  the  failure  to  nominate  him  in  1836  a  grave  political 


ia  Memoir  of  Henry  Armitt  Brown,  by  J.  M.  Hoppin,  p.  106. 

124, 


1834]  SERVICE    IN    CONGRESS 

error,  he  realized  that  Webster's  chronic  "  Presidential  fever" 
was  a  serious  malady.  He  said  to  him  once,  openly,  in  the 
presence  of  Clay  and  others,  "  You  can  be  the  king  of  this 
country  if  you  will  simply  let  it  be  known  that  you  are  un 
alterably  resolved  never  to  be  a  candidate  for  the  Presi 
dency.  You  will  always  be  Senator  from  Massachusetts,  and 
such  will  be  your  hold  on  the  people  everywhere,  by  reason 
of  your  extraordinary  ability,  that  you  will  have,  while  you 
live,  the  power  of  selection.  You  will  be  the  Warwick,  the 
king-maker." 

With  Calhoun  also  Mr.  Binney  was  on  good  terms, 
widely  as  their  views  differed  in  regard  to  State  rights  and 
slavery.  Years  afterwards,  when  Calhoun's  doctrines  were 
about  to  be  carried  out  in  secession,  Mr.  Binney  was  able  to 
recognize,  from  what  Calhoun  had  told  him,  the  fundamental 
character  of  the  issue  between  the  North  and  the  South.  It 
would  be  too  much  to  say  that  in  1834  he  foresaw  the  Civil 
War,  but  he  fully  realized  even  then  that  in  the  unhealthy 
state  to  which  the  intensity  of  party  spirit  had  brought  the 
country  no  satisfactory  settlement  of  the  slavery  problem 
was  possible.  The  impressions  produced  by  the  session  as  a 
whole  may  be  summed  up  in  the  following  letter  to  Mr.  Wal 
lace,  written  in  November: 


I  am  obliged  by  what  you  say  in  regard  to  the  sketch  of  my 
remarks  in  Letcher  vs.  Moore.  It  is  a  little  remarkable  that  the  prin 
ciples  should  have  struck  the  House  as  new.  New  or  old,  good  or  bad, 
it  is  the  same  thing.  We  have  long  thought  alike  as  to  tendencies. 
When  I  consented  to  go  to  Congress  I  was  for  a  moment  deceived. 
I  thought  I  saw  evidence  of  convalescence,  and  was  mistaken.  Since 
the  correction  of  that  mistake,  I  have  never  yielded  to  a  second  de 
lusion.  Even  the  appearance  of  last  winter  did  not  mislead  me.  I 
have  therefore  washed  my  hands  of  it.  I  ought  to  say  my  fingers,  for 

125 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Bx.  54-55 

I  never  got  deeper  than  the  first  joint.  The  fittest  language  for  men 
who  have  anything  on  board  is,  perhaps,  the  language  of  shipwreck, 
suave  qui  pent. 

At  the  short  Congressional  session  of  1834-35  the  matter 
uppermost  in  men's  minds  was  the  likelihood  of  a  war  with 
France.  In  1831  France  had  agreed  by  treaty  to  pay  a  large 
indemnity  on  account  of  depredations  upon  American  com 
merce  during  the  Napoleonic  wars,  but  the  Chambers  had  as 
yet  taken  no  steps  towards  payment.  The  King  had  prom 
ised  to  appeal  to  the  Chambers  for  the  requisite  appropria 
tion,  but  had  not  yet  done  so,  and  the  President's  message  had 
impugned  the  King's  good  faith.  Relations  were  strained  in 
consequence,  and  for  a  time  war  seemed  extremely  probable. 
Mr.  Binney's  brief  letters  to  his  son  contain  some  allusions 
to  the  controversy,  as  well  as  to  the  administration's  bill  to 
provide  for  the  deposit  of  public  funds  in  State  banks,  and 
other  matters  which  came  up  during  the  session. 

December  14.  My  impression  is  that  we  shall  have  war  with 
France  in  due  time.  The  French  minister  takes  the  message  in  bad 
part,  and  I  suppose  so  it  will  be  taken.  He  declined  the  President's 
invitation  to  the  usual  diplomatic  dinner,  and  says  that  if  he  belonged 
to  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  he  would  not  vote  the  appropriation  for 
the  treaty  until  the  menace  of  the  message  should  be  recalled;  and 
Congress  will  not  recall  it,  but  sustain  it,  at  least  in  the  House.  The 
President's  design  in  all  this  it  is  impossible  to  fathom. 

On  December  14  Mr.  Binney  supported  a  resolution  to; 
remit  the  import  duties  on  locomotive  engines,  car-wheels, 
axles,  springs,  and  other  forms  of  railroad  iron  already  im 
ported  or  to  be  imported  within  two  years.  The  measure  had 
nothing  to  do  with  protection,  as  the  articles  in  question  were 
not  made  in  this  country,  and  it  was  merely  a  temporary  aid 
to  railroad  enterprise,  then  in  its  infancy.  The  measure  was 

126 


1834-35]        SERVICE    IN    CONGRESS 

lost,  probably  for  no  better  reason  than  that  which  now  up 
holds  the  tariff  on  foreign  works  of  art. 

January  10,  1835.  I  spoke  for  about  an  hour  to-day  upon  a 
claim  of  Commodore  Hull,14  as  honest  and  just  a  claim  as  ever  was 
stated;  but  Amos  Kendall  and  the  President  would  have  been  put  in 
fault  by  its  success,  and  there  was  no  possibility  of  saving  it.  I  doubt 
whether  I  shall  again  open  my  mouth  during  the  session. 

January  26  [in  regard  to  an  application  of  some  acquaintance 
for  an  office].  No  son  of  mine  will  have  my  approbation  to  any  sort 
of  connection — military,  naval,  civil,  judicial,  or  otherwise — with  this 
government  while  it  remains  as  it  is,  unless  he  has  an  independence 
of  fortune  that  will  enable  him  to  turn  up  his  nose  at  it,  and  his  back 
upon  it,  whenever  his  honour  requires  it. 

January  30.  The  House  has  had  no  session  yesterday  or 
to-day  on  account  of  the  death  of  a  member.  Since  I  have  been  here 
one  man,  an  habitual  drunkard,  blew  his  brains  out;  two  have  died, 
notorious  drunkards  and  one  of  them  shamefully  immoral.  The  hon 
ours  are  given  to  all,  with  equal  eulogy  and  ceremonial. 

January  31.  You  have  heard  of  the  madman's  15  attempt  on 
the  President.  I  thank  Heaven  it  did  not  succeed.  I  believe  nothing 
can  be  made  of  it  but  mere  insanity. 

February  7.  If  you  will  look  at  the  National  Intelligencer  of 
Monday,  you  may  find  something  to  justify  the  opinion  I  have  ex 
pressed  of  the  great  uncertainty  of  peace.  A  debate  has  sprung  up 
to-day  of  a  very  singular  character,  begun,  as  on  a  former  occasion, 
by  Mr.  Adams,  and  for  a  while  it  threatened  great  violence.  It  has  a 
little  cooled  off,  but  the  embers  are  beneath.  The  debate  has  been 
mainly  with  the  administration  men  and  the  Committee  of  Foreign 
Relations.  My  impression  is  that  the  doubts  of  most  may  be  ulti 
mately  changed  by  the  violence  of  a  few.  Still,  I  may  be  mistaken, 
and  therefore  will  say  nothing  as  from  me. 


14  Commander  of  the  "  Constitution"  in  the  War  of  1812. 

15  A  man  named  Lawrence,  who  fired  twice  at  the  President,  the  cap  of  his 
pistol  failing  to  ignite  the  powder  either  time. 

127 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^T.  55 


February  9.  Notwithstanding  my  determination,  I  have  been 
to-day  drawn  into  a  speech  on  the  Ohio  boundary  line,  in  which  I 
stand  pledged  for  more.  It  is  a  fine  question,  and  I  am  thoroughly 
prepared,  but  I  loathe  the  operation  in  that  House,  tho'  always  most 
kindly  listened  to.  I  shall  be  glad  when  the  session  is  over. 

February  15.  I  hope  to  get  home  without  another  bout  of 
quinsy,  but  I  have  my  doubts.  I  have  had  sore  throat  nearly  all  the 
winter,  in  a  quite  unusual  manner,  sometimes  very  bad  when  I  went 
to  bed,  and  gone  or  nearly  so  in  the  morning.  My  fear  is  now  that 
a  bad  attack  may  keep  me  out  of  the  House  to-morrow,  when  the 
deposit  banks  bill  comes  up,  but  it  must  be  pretty  bad  to  do  that, 
after  once  already  in  Letcher  vs.  Moore  speaking  with  it  on  me.  I 
mention  this  merely  to  keep  you  from  thinking,  as  the  Irish  soldier 
charged  the  Frenchman  with  thinking,  that  nobody  was  killed  but 
himself. 

The  question  came  up  on  the  12th,  when  Mr.  Binney 
argued  against  the  measure  in  its  original  form,  and  pro 
posed  certain  amendments,  which  were  adopted,  but  after 
wards  reconsidered. 

February  19.  The  rogues  reconsidered  me  to-day  on  the 
deposit  question,  though  I  made  a  more  conclusive  argument  to-day 
than  on  Thursday  last.  But  I  am  quite  indifferent.  My  amendment 
is  still  before  the  House.  I  have  been  drawn  from  my  shell  against 
my  will,  and  except  for  the  Ohio  question  shall  not  again  leave  it. 
So  I  think,  though  the  friends  around  me  will  not  leave  me  always 
free. 

February  20.  My  friends  here  say  that  the  Deposit  Bill  is 
destroyed,  and  at  least  the  enemy  put  to  open  shame.16  I  do  not 
believe  either. 

February  21.  The  news  from  France  has  agitated  all  who 
did  not  expect  it.  You  have  known  my  expectations  from  the  begin 
ning.  You  ought  to  know  that  my  expectations  of  difficulty  are  not 


18  The  bill  was  not  brought  to  a  final  vote. 
128 


1835]  SERVICE    IN    CONGRESS 

much  increased  by  the  late  news  from  France,  that  is,  I  do  not  believe 
France  is  so  enragee  as  she  seems.  What  is  to  be  the  immediate  action 
of  Congress  I  cannot  tell.  My  neighbour  must,  I  believe,  prepare 
for  an  extra  session.  My  lot  will  be  to  suffer,  not  to  do.  There  is  at 
present  no  intelligence  from  our  minister  in  France;  but  it  may  be 
expected  hourly,  and  then,  or  perhaps  before,  we  shall  again  be 
prompted  from  the  White  House. 

February  22.  The  French  news  has  shortened  some  faces  pro 
digiously.  My  own  is  pretty  much  of  its  former  dimension.  Every 
thing  here  has  satisfied  me  that  the  message  has  always  been  a  most 
uncomfortable  thing  for  the  friends  of  the  President.  It  has  placed 
them  in  a  position  of  great  embarrassment,  and  they  will  be  party- 
cally,  as  I  shall  be  personally  and  politically,  happy,  if  they  can  get 
out  of  the  scrape  along  with  the  country.  My  happiness,  however, 
will  be  increased  by  the  safety  of  the  country,  and  not  of  the  party. 

February  25.  My  time,  tho'  I  rejoice  that  it  is  nearly  expired, 
has  been  far  less  unpleasant  than  formerly.  The  position  I  hold 
here  it  would  be  agreeable  to  you  to  know.  It  has  arisen  from  con 
sistency,  which  even  with  those  of  moderate  capacity,  if  accompanied 
with  good  manners,  is  of  itself  a  considerable  power.  Meaning  to 
disconnect  myself  from  active  party  politics,  I  am  of  course  gratified 
at  leaving  with  a  sentiment,  in  the  members  of  the  House,  of  some 
thing  very  like  general  good  will.  It  would  have  been  a  pity  to  spoil 
what  little  reputation  I  have  by  two  years  of  unwilling  residence  at 
this  place. 

February  26.  I  must  stay  here  to  the  end.  It  is,  however, 
to  vote,  for  anything  else  is  impossible.  The  disorder  of  the  House 
is  inconceivable :  every  one  is  rising  at  the  same  time  to  get  in  or  on 
his  bill  or  resolution,  and  no  progress  is  made.  I  presume  some  of  the 
necessary  appropriation  bills  may  fail,  and  it  will  be  well  if  there  is 
nothing  worse. 

February  28.  We  are  in  committee  on  the  French  relations, 
on  which  I  do  not  intend  to  speak.  The  fact  is  that  true  wisdom, 
safety,  and  honour  all  direct  the  same  course  of  saying  nothing,  and 
no  one  can  safely  trust  himself  with  giving  the  reasons.  We  are  in 

9  129 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^BT.  55 


a  predicament  of  great  difficulty  from  speaking  rashly,  and  it  ought, 
I  think,  to  be  left  to  run  itself  clear,  the  only  way  in  which  it  can 
become  clear,  and  every  attempt  to  make  it  clearer  will  only  trouble 
the  waters  still  more. 

On  March  2,  however,  Mr.  Binney  was  compelled  to 
break  his  resolution  of  silence,  and  he  spoke  at  some  length 
upon  the  relations  with  France.  After  reviewing  what  had 
taken  place,  he  summed  up  the  situation  as  follows  : 

On  the  one  side,  sir,  there  has  been  a  failure  in  a  punctilio 
of  time  ;  on  the  other  there  has  been  a  failure  in  a  punctilio  of  per 
sonal  courtesy  —  of  courtesy  to  the  person  of  the  King,  and  possibly 
to  the  nation,  but  still  a  punctilio.  And  thus  this  nation  is  to  forego 
the  unanswerable  claim  that  she  has  to  a  substantial  performance  of 
the  treaty,  and  both  nations  are  to  forget  their  ancient  friendship 
and  the  present  and  perpetual  sameness  of  their  great  interests,  com 
mercial  and  political,  to  go  to  war  upon  punctilios  of  time  and 
courtesy. 

He  argued  that  there  had  been  no  actual  refusal  to  carry 
out  the  treaty,  and  hence  no  cause  of  war;  that  the  delay 
necessitated  further  negotiation,  which  should  be  left  to  the 
President  to  carry  on;  and  that  Congress  should  not  take 
action.  The  resolutions  were  adopted,  however,  but  fortu 
nately  France  took  them  in  good  part,  and  no  harm  resulted. 

March  3.     I  had  to  speak  yesterday  on  the  French  question, 
and  got  two  things  for  my  pains,  —  great  praise  and  a  severe  quinsy. 
Whether  I  shall  now  be  able  to  get  on  to  Baltimore  to-morrow  is  , 
uncertain.     I  had  to  leave  the  House  last  night,  and  unless  I  am  sent 
for  I  shall  not  go  to-day. 

March  4.  [From  Baltimore.]  I  have  come  hither  to-day.  My 
throat  is  no  worse,  and  on  the  contrary  a  little  better  ;  but  there  are 
no  means  of  advancing,  either  by  the  Chesapeake  or  by  Columbia 
and  the  railroad.  I  have,  however,  a  comfortable  parlour  and  cham- 

130 


1835]  SERVICE    IN    CONGRESS 

her  at  Barnum's,  and  here  I  may  stay  till  two  hundred  members  of 
Congress  have  evacuated  the  place,  as  I  am  not  one  of  those  who  will 
ride  on  the  outside  of  a  stage,  nor  go  with  fifteen  ins  on  three  seats. 
Now  that  Congress  is  over,  I  am  patient,  and  that  is  what  I  have  not 
been  in  verity  for  nearly  two  years.  I  said  a  word  to  you  about  my 
speech  on  the  French  resolutions.  I  had  thanks  and  commendations 
on  all  sides,  some  very  extravagant,  but  others  most  gratifying.  Mr. 
Adams,  who  quoted  some  lines  of  Milton  against  me,  without  the 
least  imaginable  application  (for  he  was  on  the  borders  of  I  will  not 
say  what ) ,  said  it  was  splendid  as  well  as  able ;  but  the  source  of  my 
principal  gratification  was  that  in  a  house  full  there  were  a  dozen 
Philadelphians  who  saw  the  House  as  silent  as  a  church  for  three- 
quarters  of  an  hour.  They  have  given  me  the  opportunity  I  wished 
of  closing  my  connection  with  such  public  life  as  this.  .  .  .  Tell 
Mama  I  will  come  as  soon  as  I  can,  and  hope  hereafter  to  be  my  own 
man  and  hers,  more  than  I  have  been  for  thirty  months. 

On  July  6, 1835,  Chief  Justice  Marshall  passed  away,  at 
but  a  few  months  less  than  eighty  years  of  age;  and  on  his 
birthday,  September  24,  Mr.  Binney  delivered  before  the 
Councils  of  Philadelphia  a  eulogy  on  the  life  and  character 
of  the  great  chief  justice.  The  task  of  writing  it  was  as 
thoroughly  congenial  as  in  the  case  of  the  Tilghman  eulogy 
eight  years  before,  for  although  in  Marshall's  case  Mr.  Bin 
ney  had  not  the  inspiration  of  personal  acquaintance  and 
friendship  to  at  all  the  same  degree  as  in  that  of  Tilghman, 
its  place  was  fully  taken  by  his  devotion  to  Marshall  as  the 
man  who,  more  than  any  other,  had  claimed  and  won  for  the 
Supreme  Court  its  lawful  position  as  the  final  arbiter  in  the 
interpretation  of  the  Constitution  and  the  statutes,  and  a 
strong  bulwark  against  the  disintegrating  tendencies  of  the 
State  rights  doctrine,  as  well  as  the  usurpations  of  unconsti 
tutional  authority  by  Congress  itself.  Moreover,  as  Mar 
shall's  work  was  done  in  a  broader  and  more  exalted  field 

131 


HORACE    BINNEY  [Mi.  55 

than  Tilghman's,  the  new  subject  demanded  of  the  writer 
a  correspondingly  broader  knowledge,  both  legal  and  his 
torical,  and  a  more  perfect  grasp  of  the  principles  of  law 
as  connected  with  government.  Fortunately  Mr.  Binney  was 
able  to  meet  these  requirements,  and  it  cannot  be  doubted  that 
his  recent  life  in  Washington  had  taught  him  to  appreciate 
Marshall's  achievements  even  better  than  before,  as  he  ob 
tained  a  closer  view  of  the  workings  of  the  government,  and 
realized  more  completely  the  recklessness  of  party  spirit  and 
the  necessity  of  some  effectual  restraint  upon  both  the  Ex 
ecutive  and  the  Legislature.  His  tribute  to  the  great  Chief 
Justice  of  the  United  States  was  certainly  not  less  adequate 
than  was  that  to  him  who  had  filled  with  honour  the  lower 
station  of  the  head  of  a  State  court. 

The  eulogy  on  Marshall  is  more  than  an  appreciative  and 
illuminating  sketch  of  the  life  and  character  of  a  single  man. 
It  is  a  eulogy  of  the  Constitution  as  a  practical  and  powerful 
guarantee  of  the  liberty  of  the  citizen  and  the  stability  of 
the  nation.  It  is  an  exposition  of  the  Federalist  ideal,  the 
grandest  and  noblest  ideal  of  government  which,  to  Mr.  Bin- 
ney's  mind,  the  world  had  ever  seen.  But  recently  an  eye 
witness  of  bitter  party  strife,  and  of  the  clashing  of  the 
interests,  real  or  supposed,  of  the  different  sections  of  the 
country,  he  seized  the  occasion  to  point  to  the  Union,  estal 
lished  by  the  Constitution,  as  the  only  ark  of  safety;  and 
as  it  were  with  prophetic  voice  to  foretell  the  inevitable  result 
of  any  attempt  at  national  dissolution. 

While  we  think  with  just  affection,  my  fellow-citizens,  of  that 
State  at  whose  bosom  we  have  been  nurtured,  whose  soil  contains  the 
bones  of  our  fathers,  and  is  to  receive  our  own,  and  reverence  her  for 
those  institutions  and  laws  by  which  life  is  ennobled,  and  its  enjoy 
ments  enlarged,  far  from  us  be  that  purblind  vision  which  can  see 
nothing  of  our  country  beyond  the  narrow  circle  in  which  we  stand. 

132 


1835]  EULOGY    ON    MARSHALL 

The  Union  is  our  country.  The  government  of  the  Union  is  our 
own.  It  breathes  our  breath.  Our  blood  flows  in  its  veins.  It  is 
animated  with  the  spirit  and  it  speaks  the  voice  of  the  whole  people. 
We  have  made  it  a  depository  of  a  part  of  that  liberty  with  which  the 
valour  of  the  Revolution  made  us  free ;  and  we  can  never  review  the 
works  of  this  illustrious  tribunal,  since  Chief  Justice  Marshall  has 
been  at  its  head,  without  gratitude  to  Heaven  that  it  is  the  guardian 
of  that  part  which  alone  could  enable  us  in  our  separate  communities 
to  destroy  the  value  of  the  rest. 

What  were  the  States  before  the  Union?  The  hope  of  their 
enemies,  the  fear  of  their  friends,  and  arrested  only  by  the  Constitu 
tion  from  becoming  the  shame  of  the  world.  To  what  will  they  return 
when  the  Union  shall  be  dissolved?  To  no  better  than  that  from 
which  the  Constitution  saved  them,  and  probably  to  much  worse. 
They  will  return  to  it  with  vastly  augmented  power  and  lust  of  domi 
nation  in  some  States,  and  irremediable  disparity  in  others,  leading 
to  aggression,  to  war,  and  to  conquest.  They  will  return  to  it,  not  as 
strangers  who  have  never  been  allied,  but  as  brethren  alienated,  em 
bittered,  inflamed,  and  irreconcilably  hostile.  In  brief  time  their 
hands  may  be  red  with  each  other's  blood,  and  horror  and  shame 
together  may  then  bury  liberty  in  the  same  grave  with  the  Constitu 
tion.  The  dissolution  of  the  Union  will  not  remedy  a  single  evil,  and 
may  cause  ten  thousand.  It  is  the  highest  imprudence  to  threaten 
it;  it  is  madness  to  intend  it.  If  the  Union  we  have  cannot  endure, 
the  dream  of  the  Revolution  is  over,  and  we  must  wake  to  the  cer 
tainty  that  a  truly  free  government  is  too  good  for  mankind. 

While  Mr.  Binney  was  undoubtedly  filled  with  enthu 
siasm  for  Marshall  and  his  work,  he  was  not  the  man  to  speak 
over  the  heads  of  his  audience.  It  may  therefore  be  assumed 
that  that  audience  was  not  merely  in  accord,  in  the  main,  with 
his  principles,  but  was  composed  of  men  who  could  appre 
ciate  the  beauty  of  his  discourse,  and  in  whose  hearts  his 
lofty  sentiments  would  strike  a  responsive  chord.  It  is  a 
most  significant  commentary  upon  the  difference  between 

133 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^BT.  56 


that  day  and  the  present  that  the  nucleus  of  that  audience, 
those  whom  the  speaker  was  primarily  addressing,  were  the 
Select  and  Common  Councils  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia. 

The  following  winter  Mr.  Binney  reargued  a  case  which 
has  since  become  a  part  of  the  hand-book  law  of  the  Penn 
sylvania  student,  —  Ingersoll  vs.  Sergeant,17  argued  origi 
nally,  by  the  same  counsel  on  both  sides,  six  years  before.  I 
On  replevin  for  arrears  of  ground-rent,  it  was  contended 
that  a  release  of  a  part  of  the  ground  from  the  payment  of 
the  rent  extinguished  the  rent  altogether,  although  the  deed 
undertook  to  reserve  all  the  releasor's  rights  as  regards  the 
rest  of  the  ground;  but  the  court  sustained  the  view  (taken 
by  Mr.  Binney  and  Mr.  Chauncey)  that  a  ground-rent  in 
Pennsylvania  was  not  an  English  rent-charge,  but  was  ap- 
portionable,  so  that  the  release  extinguished  only  so  much  of 
the  rent  as  was  proportionate  to  the  value  of  the  land  re 
leased.  In  delivering  the  opinion  of  the  court,  Kennedy,  J., 
took  the  position  that  a  ground-rent  was  a  rent-service  as  at 
common  law,  and  that  the  statute  of  quia  emptores  had  never 
been  in  force  in  Pennsylvania  at  all.  This  doctrine  has  been 
the  subject  of  much  criticism,  and  it  is  significant  that  Mr. 
Binney  seems  to  have  confined  himself  to  the  view  that  a 
ground-rent  was  "  in  character  analogous  to  a  rent-service, 
.  .  .  and  ought  to  be  governed  by  the  rules  applicable  to  that 
species  of  rent." 

In  April,  1836,  Mr.  Binney  resigned  from  the  Board  of 
Trustees  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  after  having 
long  been  one  of  the  most  active  members  of  that  body. 
Taking  a  keen  interest  in  the  institution,  he  had  wished  to 
see  it  a  great  centre  of  higher  education  for  Pennsylvania 
and  the  adjacent  States,  as  Harvard  was  in  Eastern  New 


"  1  Whart.,  337. 
134 


1836]          INGERSOLL    vs.    SERGEANT 

England  and  Yale  in  the  more  western  portion.  The  broad 
training  which  such  an  institution  would  give  was,  he  con 
sidered,  the  fundamental  reason  for  the  University's  exist 
ence,  and  he  always  opposed  the  policy  of  devoting  its  re 
sources  to  building  up  the  Medical  School  at  the  expense  of 
the  college  proper,  the  Department  of  Arts.  If  the  men 
of  Philadelphia,  he  thought,  were  furnished  with  a  thorough 
college  education,  they  would  see  the  advantage  of  profes 
sional  schools,  and  would  support  them;  but  a  university 
strong  in  medicine  and  weak  in  arts  was,  to  his  mind,  an 
inverted  pyramid.  Had  he  succeeded,  in  1833,  in  inducing 
his  friend  John  Pickering  to  accept  the  provostship,  a  change 
might  have  resulted;  but  finally  he  found  the  influence  of 
the  medical  faculty  too  strong  to  be  overcome,  and  resigned, 
Messrs.  Sergeant  and  Chauncey  also  leaving  the  board  at 
about  the  same  time. 


135 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Ex.  56 


VII 

EUROPEAN    TOUR 
1836-1837 

IN  May,  1836,  the  health  of  Mr.  Binney's  daughter 
Esther  necessitating  a  sea  voyage  and  change  of  cli 
mate,  he  took  her  to  Europe,  along  with  his  niece,  Miss 
Wallace.  They  returned  in  June,  1837,  and  soon  afterwards 
he  wrote  out,  from  notes  taken  at  the  time,  supplemented  by 
letters,  a  very  complete  record  of  the  tour,  and  of  the  impres 
sions  which  the  various  places  and  people  had  made  upon 
him.1  The  object  of  the  journey  confined  him  to  the  beaten 
track,  but  the  whole  system  of  European  travel  has  been  so 
revolutionized  since  that  time,  many  of  the  places  visited  have 
been  so  much  altered,  and  even  the  condition  and  habits  of 
the  people  have,  in  some  countries,  undergone  such  changes, 
that  to  those  who  are  only  familiar  with  the  Europe  of  to-day 
the  record  of  such  a  journey  reads  almost  as  if  it  had  been 
taken  in  another  part  of  the  world.  With  the  sailing-vessels 
of  that  day,  crossing  the  Atlantic  was  a  serious  matter,  con 
suming  far  more  time  than  now,  to  say  nothing  of  the  greater 
risk.  Though  meeting  with  no  accident,  nor  any  really  severe 
weather,  Mr.  Binney  was  sixty-eight  days  on  the  water  going 
and  returning,  as  much  time  as  many  people  now  allow  for 
an  entire  European  trip.  Under  these  circumstances  it  is  not 
surprising  that,  having  previously  travelled  but  little,  he  had 
none  of  the  spirit  of  the  "  globe  trotter"  of  to-day,  and  would 


1  The  journal  would  probably  fill  two  octavo  volumes.    Only  some  of  the  most 
characteristic  portions  are  inserted  in  the  present  memoir. 

136 


1836]  VOYAGE    TO   EUROPE 

probably  never  have  visited  Europe  at  all  from  any  mere  love 
of  travel  or  desire  for  his  own  recreation.  Italy  had,  indeed, 
been  the  subject  of  his  "  dreams  night  and  day  from  boy 
hood,"  but  it  was  rather  the  Italy  of  Horace  and  Virgil,  of 
Cicero  and  Livy,  the  Italy  of  Dante  2  and  the  mediseval  re 
publics,  than  that  of  Gregory  XVI.  and  the  Bourbon  kings 
and  Austrian  archdukes.  He  was  too  old  for  extravagant 
rapture  over  the  sights,  scenery,  or  life  of  Europe,  and  he 
had  no  tendency  towards  the  so-called  cosmopolitanism  which 
often  leads  travellers  to  depreciate  their  own  country ;  but  his 
active  and  well-stored  mind  enabled  him  to  enter  fully  and 
appreciatively  into  all  the  pleasures  of  travel,  and  to  retain 
and  record  clear  impressions  of  what  he  heard  and  saw. 

Leaving  New  York  on  May  3,  in  the  ship  "  West 
minster,"  six  hundred  and  fifty  tons,  the  party  landed  at 
Falmouth  on  the  31st,  when  their  first  impression  was  of 
the  severe  aspect  of  the  Cornish  coast,  even  in  fine  weather. 

"  As  it  was  from  this  port  (Falmouth)  that  the  '  May 
flower'  with  the  Plymouth  colonists  departed  for  America, 
I  could  not  help  remarking  that  our  Puritan  ancestors  could 
have  met  nothing  more  forbidding  on  the  coast  of  New  Eng 
land  than  they  left  behind  them.  With  their  recollection  of 
the  hard  doings  of  many  of  their  countrymen,  and  the  hard 
cliffs  of  their  country  which  met  their  last  looks,  strong  must 
have  been  their  love  of  country  still  to  regard  them  both  with 
affection.  But  the  mother's  bosom,  hard  as  it  may  be  to 
others,  is  always  soft  to  her  children.3 


2  "Let  me  say  that  I  love  that  hard-headed,  and  deep-hearted,  and  large- 
livered  man  Dante  as  well  as  you  or  any  man  can;  not  that  I  understand  him  as 
well.  I  read  all  that  I  could  get  of  him  in  Italy,  on  the  spot  and  spots,  and  with 
benefit  of  scenery  and  footlights."  (Letter  to  Dr.  Lieber,  December  14,  1861.) 

•That  the  love  of  the  early  New  Englanders  for  the  mother  country  had 
descended  to  Mr.  Binney  in  as  full  a  measure  as  was  possible  for  one  who  was 
devotedly  attached  to  America,  the  pages  of  his  journal  bear  witness,  those  por- 

137 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Ex.  56 

"  We  landed  after  breakfast  and  stood  fast  for  the  first 
time  on  England's  fast  island.  We  were  all,  of  course,  in 
buoyant  spirits,  not  only  disposed  to  enjoy  everything,  but 
incapable  of  any  other  sensation,  and  after  the  Custom- 
House  was  passed,  where  we  found  despatch  and  civil  treat 
ment,  I  reconnoitred  the  town,  especially  the  suburbs,  the  best 
quarter  to  learn  the  condition  and  character  of  the  people. 
In  the  direction  which  I  first  took,  towards  the  castle  of  Pen- 
dennis,  the  cottages  were  in  that  taste  which  I  afterwards 
found  so  common  in  England.  Little  enclosed  spots  were 
before  most  of  them,  with  geraniums,  roses,  the  arum,  and 
other  flowers  in  bloom  in  the  open  ground  (not  in  pots) ,  and 
honeysuckle  and  other  trailing  shrubs  trained  up  the  walls 
and  by  the  sides  of  the  doors.  Flowers  were  to  be  seen  on 
all  sides,  and  the  laburnum  with  its  clusters  of  yellow  blos 
soms.  Every  sense  was  regaled.  Where  there  was  hardly 
the  evidence  of  comfortable  subsistence,  there  were  still  clean 
liness  and  the  love  of  flowers.  .  .  . 

"  On  the  following  morning,  at  half -past  six,  my  party 
left  Falmouth  in  a  post-chaise  and  four  for  Exeter,  one 
hundred  miles  distant,  under  bright  skies  and  with  a  balmy 
air,  and  were  destined  to  enjoy,  on  this  first  day,  the  full 
delight  of  English  travelling.  All  nature  was  in  her  best 
attire,  and  a  more  beautiful  nature  than  was  before  us  a  great 
part  of  the  day  I  never  beheld.  Our  vehicle  was  perfect  for 

tions  which  relate  to  England  being  manifestly  written  with  a  more  sympathetic 
pen  than  the  description  of  the  Continental  tour.  Perhaps  his  remark  on  the 
scenery  of  France,  England,  and  America  may  in  some  measure  be  taken  as  a 
general  expression  of  his  attitude  towards  his  own  and  foreign  countries: 

"  I  am  compelled  to  say  that  '  La  belle  France'  is  an  expression  that  implies 
the  admiration  of  the  children  rather  than  the  beauty  of  the  mother.  I  did  not 
think  her  half  as  handsome  as  my  mother,  and  she  was  no  touch  at  all  to  my 
grandmother,  who,  by  means  of  a  fine  taste  in  dress,  looks  something  handsomer 
than  her  daughter." 

138 


1836]  EXETER 

the  purpose.  The  front  and  one-half  of  the  body  on  each 
side  had  glasses,  to  give  us  the  full  sweep  of  the  horizon,  and 
there  was  no  seat  in  front  to  intercept  the  view.  The  post 
boys  with  their  scarlet,  or  blue,  or  buff  jackets,  white  or 
yellow  breeches,  and  their  fair  top-boots,  danced  with  an 
animated  hitch  in  the  saddle  to  the  stroke  of  the  horses'  feet, 
over  roads  on  which  there  was  not  a  stone  as  big  as  a  filbert, 
and  with  a  pace  never  less  than  ten  miles  an  hour.  We  were 
of  course  ushered  at  once  into  the  beatitude  of  posting. 
When  we  arrived  at  Exeter  in  the  afternoon,  we  agreed  that 
it  had  been  a  day  of  too  much  sensation  for  profitable  ob 
servation.  .  .  . 

"  I  shall  never  again  feel  the  sensations  which  attended 
my  first  entrance  into  Exeter  Cathedral.  The  exterior  of  it, 
with  its  many  buttresses  surmounted  with  pinnacles,  and  the 
lofty  spires  from  its  tower,  had  in  some  degree  prepared  me 
for  them.  In  magnitude  and  in  awful  solemnity  it  greatly 
exceeded  any  ecclesiastical  structure  I  had  ever  seen.  Its 
dark-gray  walls,  covered  in  some  parts  with  effigies  in  bold 
relief,  which  had  been  mutilated  by  violence,  or  worn  off  by 
the  elements,  so  as  to  present  no  distinguishable  features, 
spoke  not  only  of  ages  long  past,  but  of  races  of  men  who 
had  successively  lived  and  died,  flourished  and  decayed,  been 
ennobled  and  forgotten,  had  ruled  and  were  trodden  under 
foot,  while  the  temple  itself  stood  firm  on  its  foundations, 
pointing  with  its  pinnacles  to  the  ever  living  and  unchange 
able  Being  above,  in  whose  honour  it  was  erected  and  still 
employed.  Here  was  the  noblest  image  I  had  yet  beheld  of 
change  and  constancy,  of  death  and  immortality,  of  the  va 
poury  life  of  man  and  of  the  imperishable  love  and  fear  of 
God.  With  the  emotions  which  the  first  view  excited,  I  en 
tered  the  church  at  its  western  end,  and  as  I  looked  onward 
and  upward  and  around,  and  took  in  the  whole  scene,  I  for 

139 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  56 

the  first  time  felt  disturbed  by  the  presence  of  my  com 
panions,  and  wished  to  be  alone. 

4  The  painted  windows  threw  a  '  dim  religious  light'  upon 
the  bishop's  throne,  and  upon  the  pulpit,  the  stalls,  and  the 
altar,  all  of  which  brought  before  me  the  service  of  the 
Church,  and  made  me  feel  that  I  was  a  fellow-worshipper  in 
all  points  with  those  who  worshipped  there.  It  was  a  delight 
ful  feeling  of  communion  with  a  people  of  whom  as  yet  I 
knew  none.  ...  I  continued  to  feel  as  a  stranger  and  an 
alien  in  Italy  to  the  last  day  of  the  seven  months  I  passed 
there.  I  felt  at  home  the  very  first  hour  that  I  entered  an 
English  church,  and  not  truly  till  then.  It  was  not  so  much 
the  structure  which  produced  this  effect,  as  the  worship  cele 
brated  in  it,  all  the  principles  and  ceremonies  of  which  I 
knew  and  approved;  but  the  structure,  so  worthy  of  the 
worship  offered  up  in  it,  contributed  to  exalt  the  feeling  to 
the  very  highest  degree." 

From  Exeter  they  went  to  London  by  the  mail-coach, 
which  presented  many  interesting  novelties  to  the  American 
eye. 

"  An  English  mail-coach  is  a  '  bit  of  Heaven  dropt  down 
upon  earth,'  as  much  as  the  Bay  of  Naples,  and  rather  more. 
Everything  in  it  and  about  it  moves  at  once, — horses,  coach, 
and  passengers.  There  was  not  a  jerk  or  twist  that  would 
have  spilt  the  wine  from  a  glass  in  the  one  hundred  and 
seventy  miles  from  Exeter  to  Hyde  Park  Corner.  Always 
in  brisk  motion,  sometimes  at  full  speed,  you  hear  nothing 
but  the  sound  of  a  closely  geared  engine,  something  like  one 
of  the  deep  pipes  of  an  organ,  with  the  least  possible  of  the 
tremulant  in  it.  It  is,  moreover,  the  gayest  thing  imaginable 
to  the  eye.  The  coachman  and  guard  (I  speak  of  the  Royal 
Mail)  in  their  scarlet  coats  and  gold  buttons,  the  coach  gen 
erally,  perhaps  always,  red,  with  the  royal  arms,  the  horses 

140 


1836]  LONDON 

blooded  and  perfectly  groomed  and  matched  in  their  paces, 
and  the  harness  flashing  from  its  metal  tips  and  mounting, 
make  it  in  seeming  a  holiday  equipage,  while  in  truth  it  is 
every  day  and  all  days  in  the  year  the  same,  to  be  found  in 
the  same  spot  at  the  same  hour  every  day,  and  going  at  the 
same  rate.  A  whip  lash,  cutting  through  the  air  like  a  scimi 
tar,  was  the  only  word  I  heard  from  the  coachman  to  his 
horses,  and  that  very  rarely,  and  it  was  always  the  precursor 
of  a  deeper  tone  from  the  wheels." 

The  stay  in  England  in  this  summer  of  1836,  and  after 
the  return  from  the  continent  the  following  spring,  covered 
in  all  about  three  months,  including  seven  weeks  in  London; 
and,  fortunately,  Mr.  Binney's  journal  records  some  of  the 
impressions  produced  by  the  sights  of  that  city,  as  well  as  his 
meeting  with  men  whose  lives  have  now  become  a  part  of  the 
history  of  the  empire. 

"  The  monuments  [in  Westminster  Abbey]  in  general, 
though  they  recall  the  names  of  some  immortal  men,  are  so 
irregularly  thrown  about  as  to  mar  the  effect  of  this  temple. 
From  this  cause  perhaps,  and  from  the  tendency  of  the  mind 
to  dwell  upon  the  deeds  and  characters  of  men,  especially 
upon  the  pageantry  of  kings,  queens,  and  coronations,  to 
which  the  Abbey  is  devoted,  I  confess  to  the  smallest  degree 
of  solemnity  in  it  that  cathedral  church  ever  impressed  me 
with.  The  full  effect  of  cathedral  architecture  depends  upon 
its  devotion,  and  its  exclusive  devotion,  to  the  worship  of  God. 
If  the  flaunting  or  gaudy  banners  of  Knights  of  the  Bath 
are  hung  up  in  it,  if  flags  won  in  bloody  victory  are  displayed 
there,  if  gorgeous  monuments  of  statesmen,  warriors,  and 
poets  proclaim  there  the  praise  of  the  sculptor,  or  the  emptier 
praise  of  men  who  for  the  most  part  did  works  which  God 
will  disown, — I  have  found,  wherever  these  things  have 
struck  me,  that  the  emotion  first  excited  in  the  Cathedral  of 

141 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  56 

Exeter  did  not  enter  my  heart.  Westminster  Abbey  and 
St.  Paul's  were  not  therefore  with  me  the  temples  of  the 
living  God,  but  were  the  works  of  man  in  commemoration 
of  man.  They  are  both,  especially  the  latter,  immense 
structures,  and  volumes  have  been  written  about  them  and 
what  they  contain,  but  I  feel  the  same  emotion  in  reading 
of  them  as  I  did  in  seeing  them.  How  different  from  twenty 
other  churches  I  could  name!  Henry  VII. 's  chapel,  where 
the  banners  of  the  Knights  of  the  Bath  are  suspended, — gor 
geous  and  admirable  no  doubt, — would  have  looked  as  well 
to  me  in  a  picture.  Can  I  say  this  of  Exeter,  Worcester, 
Gloucester,  York,  Canterbury?" 

The  chief  impression  produced  by  a  visit  to  the  Tower 
was  the  triumph  of  law  over  force. 

'  When  the  eye  was  not  busy  looking,  the  heart  was 
thrilling  with  thoughts  springing  up  from  everything 
around, — of  imprisonment,  of  misery  and  death,  of  murders 
according  to  law,  and  without  law,  and  against  law,  that 
seemed  to  be  written  on  every  stone  within  these  '  towers  of 
Julius,  London's  lasting  shame.'  I  was  not  sorry  to  get  away, 
nor  yet  sorry  to  have  been  within  and  to  reflect  that,  at  this 
time  of  day,  the  lawless  imprisonment  of  a  British  subject 
within  those  towers  for  a  single  day,  and  still  more  the  law 
less  murder  of  any  one,  however  obscure,  by  the  arm  of 
power,  might  shake  them  from  their  turrets  to  their  founda 
tions,  that  not  one  stone  would  be  left  on  another.  So  much 
have  the  men  around  it  changed,  while  the  Tower  is  still 
unchanged.  Lovelace's  poetical  philosophy — '  Stone  walls 
do  not  a  prison  make,  nor  iron  bars  a  cage' — has  received  its 
verification  at  this  day  as  also  a  political  truth.  No  man  is 
a  prisoner  in  England  unless  the  law  is  his  gaoler." 

When  Mr.  Binney  visited  England,  but  twenty-one  years 
had  passed  since  Waterloo,  and  the  interest  in  the  anniver- 

142 


1836]  LONDON 

sary  celebration  was  heightened  by  the  participation  of  many 
of  those  who  had  taken  part  in  the  battle  itself. 

"  Saturday,  June  18.  The  anniversary  of  the  Battle  of 
Waterloo,  and  a  military  exhibition  in  Hyde  Park.  It  was 
a  glorious  day,  and  the  first,  almost  the  only  one,  that  re 
minded  me  of  the  fine  summer  weather  of  my  own  country. 
.  .  .  A  fresh  breeze  dried  up  most  of  the  watery  clouds  and 
drove  the  rest  rapidly  through  the  skies,  giving  that  succes 
sion  of  light  and  shadow  so  favourable  to  the  picturesque. 
There  were  about  five  thousand  men  under  arms  in  the  park, 
and  they  had  been  in  preparation  and  training  for  the  fete 
for  several  weeks.  The  spectacle  was  for  its  scale  magnificent, 
ind  its  scale  was  quite  large  enough  for  such  an  eye  as  mine. 
jjA.  card  was  sent  to  me  to  admit  my  carriage  within  the  ring ; 
but  we  were  much  better  placed  than  in  a  carriage, — namely, 
rn  the  upper  story  of  a  lofty  house,  immediately  opposite  to 
he  royal  carriages,  and  of  course  within  a  short  distance  of 
ill  the  distinguished  persons  who  surrounded  the  King.  The 
*  Duke  (there  would  seem  to  be  but  one  duke  in  England)  and 
she  Marquis  of  Anglesea  were  most  observed  by  us.  The 
narching,  firing  of  the  small-arms,  charging  of  the  cavalry, 
ndeed  all  the  evolutions,  seemed  perfect.  Two  thousand  legs 
Itemed  to  be  governed  by  one  will.  The  feet  in  all  parts  of 
|jhe  park  rose  and  came  down  as  one  foot.  What  gave  special 
animation  to  the  scene,  however,  was  the  finish  of  perform- 
Itnce  in  the  Horse  Artillery.  It  was  served  with  so  much 
ftapidity,  and  moved  in  all  parts  with  so  much  precision,  that 
ad  horses,  guns,  and  men  been  manoeuvred  by  machinery,  it 
ilould  not  have  been  moved  with  more  certainty,  and  it  was  as 
Snick  as  an  electric  battery.  A  sham  fight,  which  was  enacted 
|:i  the  park,  gave  scope  for  all  movements  that  it  was  thought 
ij  roper  to  make.  The  vivid  green  of  the  park,  the  bright 
Icarlet  of  the  Guards,  the  flashing  of  their  arms,  the  dazzling 

143 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  56-57 

white  of  their  drillings,  the  charge  of  their  light  cavalry,  the 
roar  and  smoke  of  the  artillery,  the  animating  breeze,  and 
the  bright  sun,  just  tempered  by  the  quick-passing  clouds, 
as  he  fell  upon  the  gorgeous  scene  of  actors  and  spectators 
below,  made  it  the  most  beautiful  pageant  I  had  ever  be 
held.  It  increased  our  satisfaction  to  think  that  it  was  a 
commemoration  of  by-gone  sacrifices,  and  not  a  preparation 
for  new." 

As  may  well  be  supposed,  Mr.  Binney  visited  the  courts 
and  Parliament  with  peculiar  interest.  The  latter  was  then 
sitting  in  temporary  quarters,  after  the  fire  in  St.  Stephen's 
Chapel,  and  the  arrangement  of  the  apartments  he  heartily 
approved. 

"  They  are  of  ample  size  for  business,  and  for  all  the 
necessary  accommodations  for  visitors.  The  desks  and  arm 
chairs  of  our  Congress  are  an  abomination.  Covered  with 
newspapers  and  letters  to  be  answered,  and  the  desk  drawers 
stuffed  with  paper,  quills,  biscuit,  and  tobacco,  and  arm 
chairs  behind  them  with  stuffed  bottoms, — who  can  expect 
despatch  of  business,  or  attention  to  what  is  going  on,  in  a 
body  so  accommodated?  A  book  or  a  newspaper  or  the 
writing  of  a  letter  is  an  easier  refuge  from  a  long  speech 
than  to  cough  it  down.  If  members  must  listen,  they  will 
not  endure  a  bore  very  patiently;  and  while  they  sit  close 
together  on  hard  benches  without  backs,  they  require  to  be 
interested  by  the  speaker,  as  their  own  position  is  by  no  means 
interesting.  As  to  the  public,  if  the  stenographers  are  there, 
and  room  for  a  dozen  besides,  it  is  abundant  room.  I  am 
therefore  for  confining  representative  bodies  within  the  small 
est  compass  not  producing  positive  bodily  discomfort,  and 
this  I  understand  is  the  design  of  the  new  Parliament  House, 
I  am  for  compelling  the  members  to  cough,  scrape,  or  groan 
down  the  whole  army  of  bores  who  speak  for  Buncombe,  anc 

144 


1836-37]  LONDON 

they  never  will  do  this  if  they  have  books  or  letters  to  read 
or  arm-chairs  to  sleep  in. 

"  In  the  afternoon  I  went  to  the  House  of  Commons, 
being  admitted  by  the  Speaker,  and  having  a  seat  on  the 
tier  of  benches,  which,  on  each  side  of  the  door  of  entrance, 
rise  from  the  level  of  the  lowest  bench  to  a  height  of  perhaps 
eight  or  ten  feet.  I  heard  Lord  John  Russell,4  Sir  Robert 
Peel,  Sir  James  Graham,  Warburton,  Wood,  O'Connell, 
Shiel,  Lord  Stanley,  Talfourd,  Sir  John  Campbell,5  or  most 
of  them,  but  the  topics  were  of  no  moment,  nor  the  debates 
of  any  interest.  The  members  transacted  business  in  com 
mittee  with  great  effect  and  despatch.  There  was  a  good  con 
versational  style  of  remark,  a  few  minutes  by  each  speaker, 
pertinent  to  the  matter  in  hand,  and  without  any  pretension : 
good  manners,  good  sense,  order,  pertinence,  facility,  and 
promptness.  I  made  an  involuntary  contrast  between  this 
and  what  I  had  always  witnessed  in  Committee  of  the  Whole 
at  Washington.  I  do  not  mean  to  criticize  the  speakers,  but 
I  heard  no  debating  at  any  time  in  either  House  that  was 
better  than  I  had  often  heard  at  home;  in  general  it  was 
not  as  good.  I  must,  however,  express  a  decided  preference 
for  the  manner  in  which  business  was  disposed  of  in  the 
House  of  Commons." 

Of  other  visits  he  wrote : 

"  April  19,  1837-  I  went  down  to  the  House  this  even 
ing  after  dinner  to  hear  a  debate  upon  a  motion  by  Sir  Henry 
Hardinge  in  regard  to  the  employment  of  British  forces  in 
Spain.  When  I  entered  the  lobby,  by  permission  of  the 
Speaker,  Lord  Palmerston  6  was  on  his  legs,  and  I  listened  to 
him  for  two  hours,  and  left  him  as  I  found  him,  during  which 
time  I  think  he  had  used  his  legs  more  than  his  understand- 


*  Home  Secretary.  5  Attorney-General.  •  Foreign  Secretary. 

10  145 


HORACE    BINNEY  [.Ex.  56-57 

ing.  He  is  an  awkward,  unfluent  speaker,  wanting  small 
words  especially,  and  never  using  select  ones.  On  at  least 
fifty  occasions  his  sentences  were  finished  in  a  way  that  he 
probably  did  not  intend.  I  never  knew  a  man  who  had  so 
little  of  the  Virginia  faculty  of  closing  a  period  smoothly 
and  roundly  without  regard  to  its  meaning.  There  was  good 
sense  in  much  that  Lord  Palmerston  said,  but  it  was  very 
plain,  every-day  sense,  delivered  in  a  very  plain,  every-day 
dress,  by  no  means  so  good  as  he  covers  his  body  withal.  I 
understood  at  the  same  time  that  this  was  one  of  his  best 
efforts.  He  was  at  times  vehemently  cheered  by  his  friends, 
sometimes  by  the  opposite  side  by  way  of  taunt,  and  then 
there  was  a  regular  set-to,  each  side  endeavouring  to  out -go 
the  other.  It  was  like  nothing  I  could  conceive  of  but  a 
grove  of  monkies  in  Africa  at  a  town  meeting.  The  c  Hear, 
hear,  hear'  was  sometimes  like  the  neighing  of  a  horse,  some 
times  like  the  gibber  of  an  ape.  Everything  like  dignity  was 
put  to  flight  by  it,  and  I  suppose  that  it  is  never  used  in  this 
uproarious  form  as  an  accompaniment  to  a  speech  of  any 
dignity,  which  Lord  Palmerston's  was  not." 

"  April  28,  1837.  In  the  evening  I  went  with  our  min 
ister  to  the  House  of  Lords.  Some  Irish  remonstrance  was 
up,  in  regard  to  Lord  Normanby's  administration,  the  pardon 
of  culprits  among  the  disaffected,  I  believe.  Lords  Roden, 
Clanricarde,  Donoughmore,  Glengall,  Lansdowne,7  and 
Wellington  were  the  speakers.  The  Marquis  of  Lansdowne 
spoke  quite  well,  and  evidently  got  the  advantage  of  Roden, 
who  had  made  his  attack  without  a  due  preparation  of  facts: 
and  I  was  delighted  at  the  manner  in  which  the  Duke,  finding 
his  friends  could  not  meet  the  enemy  in  front,  gave  the  min 
istry  a  smart  charge  in  flank,  and  got  a  little  advantage  there 


7  Lord  President  of  the  Council. 
146 


1836-37]  LONDON 

to  set  off  against  the  loss  in  the  main  action.  No  final  ques 
tion  was  taken,  but  all  was  conducted  with  great  dignity. 
Lords  Brougham,  Holland,  Cottenham,8  Abinger,  Mel 
bourne,9  Glenelg10  were  there,  in  a  full  house;  but  not  a 
word  did  I  hear  from  any  of  them  but  a  '  Hear,  hear'  from 
Lord  Holland,  in  a  voice  of  such  breadth,  depth,  and  spirit 
as  went  to  my  heart." 

Of  his  visits  to  the  courts,  Mr.  Binney  wrote: 
"  June  16,  1836.  The  judges  were  at  work,  but  not  in 
bane.  Coleridge  was  sitting  for  the  King's  Bench,  Parke  for 
the  Common  Pleas,  Lord  Abinger  (Scarlett)  for  the  Ex 
chequer.  Witnesses  were  under  examination,  and  the  judge 
took  brief  notes,  but  not  the  counsel,  and  the  pause  between 
the  answer  and  another  question  was  the  shortest  possible. 
The  wigs  are  a  capital  supplement  to  a  tell-tale  face,  the 
worst  thing  with  a  bad  cause  that  a  barrister  can  have.  They 
bring  all  the  faces  to  one  expression,  and  that  the  blankest 
possible.  Sir  John  Campbell,  the  Attorney-General,  and 
Sergeant  Talfourd  (the  author  of  Ion)  looked  both  alike. 
I  afterwards  saw  them  in  the  House,  and,  in  the  absence  of 
their  gowns  and  wigs,  pacing  Westminster  Hall;  they  were 
meconnaissables.  Two  men  more  unlike,  out  of  their  wigs, 
never  lived.  .  .  . 

"  April  18,  1837.  Visited  the  Court  of  King's  Bench. 
Denman,  Littledale,  Patteson,  and  Coleridge  were  all  in 
court.  The  countenance  of  the  chief  justice  is  manly  and 
good.  It  is  a  face  to  bespeak  confidence  in  integrity,  rather 
than  in  acuteness  or  learning.  Judge  Littledale  is  obviously 
an  old  man  who  has  outlived  his  vigour ;  but  I  took  pleasure 


8  Lord  Chancellor. 

9  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury,  and  Prime  Minister. 

10  Colonial  Secretary. 

147 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^T.  56-5T 


in  tracing  out  his  resemblance,  which  I  instantly  perceived,  to 
my  old  master  Mr.  Ingersoll.  Patteson  has  a  fine  eye,  in 
dicative  of  genius,  not  of  patient  and  long-enduring  labour. 
Coleridge's  physiognomy  could  not  be  improved.  There  was 
thought  and  refinement  in  all  its  lines.  The  wigs  and  curls 
and  bluish-purple  gowns  with  changeable  reddish  cuffs  were 
an  important  part  of  the  scene.  It  was  motion  day,  and  the 
counsel  were  called  upon  in  order.  The  oldest  soon  got 
stumped,  and  was  talked  down.  His  motion  for  a  new  trial 
did  not  last  three  minutes,  and  the  court  saved  all  trouble  to 
his  opponent.  The  reporters  were  sitting  under  the  court, 
taking  their  notes,  and  the  students-at-law  were  employed  on 
each  side  of  the  reporters  in  the  same  way.  There  was  great 
order  and  sufficient  despatch,  but  there  was  little  ceremonious- 
ness  between  court  and  bar,  and  not  the  least  air  of  either 
condescension  or  deference.  Upon  the  whole  the  judges  and 
bar  were  more  nearly  on  a  level  than  they  are  in  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  not  to  say  that  there  was  any  im 
proper  familiarity  either  way. 

"  In  the  Exchequer,  which  I  also  visited,  Lord  Abinger 
was  sitting  as  chief  baron,  with  Sir  James  Parke  and  Bol- 
land.  Lord  Abinger's  face  was  not  as  fiery  as  it  struck  me 
to  be  last  summer.  When  I  saw  him  I  knew  him  to  be  Scar 
lett  at  first  sight,  varying  to  crimson.  Sir  James  Parke  has 
a  dark,  Websterian  face,  and  passes  for  having  the  same  kind 
of  head.  Bolland's  face  is  long  and  not  intellectual. 

"  The  Vice-Chancellor  Shadwell,  who  was  holding  his 
court,  caught  my  attention  more  by  a  remark  he  made  to 
counsel  than  by  his  face  or  person.  Some  one,  I  did  not  know 
who,  was  endeavouring  to  repel  a  charge  of  harshness  made 
against  his  client  by  the  opposite  counsel,  as  if  he  feared  its 
influence  on  the  vice-chancellor's  mind.  The  vice-chancellor, 
in  a  clear  but  rather  sharp  and  thin  voice,  said,  '  It  is  not  the 

148 


1836-37]  LONDON 

question,  and  I  care  nothing  about  it.  Go  to  something 
else.' 

'  Tindal  and  three  others  were  in  the  Common  Pleas. 
One  judge  was  absent  from  both  this  and  the  King's  Bench, 
probably  at  sittings  or  nisi  prius.  .  .  . 

"  April  28,  1837.  The  American  Minister  did  me  the 
honour  to  drive  me  down  to  Westminster  Hall,  to  introduce 
me  to  the  judges,  at  a  little  after  nine.  We  had  delayed  so 
much  that  they  were  just  going  into  court  when  we  entered 
their  chamber,  and  after  an  introduction  and  a  few  words 
Lord  Denman  led  the  way  and  asked  us  to  follow  the  judges 
into  the  court-room,  where  he  ordered  us  a  seat  near  the  re 
porters.  The  Attorney-General  (Campbell)  asked  us  down 
to  his  form,  which  was  in  front,  nearest  the  court,  and  there 
we  sat  for  an  hour.  Whiteman  and  Archbold  were  argu 
ing,  and  Cresswell,  who  was  sitting  among  the  barristers, 
said  something  civil  of  the  American  courts,  with  which 
he  said  they  were  well  acquainted  by  their  reporters  in  the 
library  of  the  bar.  It  was  motion  day,  as  when  I  was  last 
there." 

Of  the  lawyers'  church  Mr.  Binney  wrote : 

"  Sunday,  April  23,  1837.  It  was  with  great  pleasure 
that  I  took  my  girls  to  the  Temple  Church  this  morning,  to 
hear  the  fine  organ,  to  see  the  noble  old  structure,  and  to 
hear  a  sermon  from  Mr.  Benson,  the  present  master,  whom 
I  have  more  than  once  heard  spoken  of  as  one  of  the  best 
preachers  in  England.  The  church  is  a  structure  parts  of 
which  looked  older  than  other  parts,  though  none  was  new. 
In  a  sort  of  vestibule  the  monuments  of  the  Knights  Templar 
give  you  antiquity  of  more  than  five  hundred  years,  as  the 
order  has  been  so  long  abolished.  The  bronze  figure  of  the 
knight  lies  flat  in  some  instances  on  the  top  of  his  grave, 
without  other  monument.  Such  as  had  been  to  Palestine  as 

149 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  56-57 

Crusaders  lie  with  one  leg  crossed  over  the  other.  The  ser 
mon  was  well  written  and  well  delivered,  that  is  to  say,  with 
unction.  The  Master  seemed  to  be  in  feeble  health.  The 
greater  part  of  the  congregation  consisted  of  men,  who  I 
suppose  were  the  benchers,  and  the  same  description  of  men 
for  whom  Sherlock  wrote  his  admirable  sermons  when  he 
was  master,  the  very  best  sermons  for  lawyers  that  I  think 
were  ever  written.  ...  It  was  the  highest  gratification 
to  be  in  the  church,  and  in  the  centre  of  the  audience 
that  I  had  so  often  figured  to  myself  while  reading  these 


sermons." 


Mr.  Binney  had  taken  a  hundred  and  thirty  letters  of 
introduction  with  him,  chiefly  to  Englishmen,  but  as  he  did 
not  present  a  third  of  them,  probably  the  greater  number  had 
been  volunteered  by  his  friends.  His  unwillingness  to  leave 
his  daughter  and  niece  to  themselves  restricted  his  own  move 
ments  somewhat,  and  he  was,  moreover,  never  keen  about 
making  acquaintances,  and  the  last  man  in  the  world  to  run 
after  celebrities.  He  was  also  somewhat  influenced  by  the 
fact  that  the  general  feeling  of  Englishmen  towards  Ameri 
cans  was  then  far  from  cordial,  for  he  wrote : 

"  I  regretted  exceedingly  that  I  had  to  break  away  from 
Edinburgh  without  seeing  any  of  its  great  men,  to  several 
of  whom,  Jeffrey,  Hope,  and  others,  I  had  letters;  but 
during  all  my  tour  I  felt  exceedingly  shy  of  presenting  my 
letters  to  English  and  Scotch  gentlemen,  who  are  themselves 
very  shy  of  my  countrymen,  placing  all  of  us  in  a  category 
which  I  might  not  have  had  time  enough,  in  a  single  inter 
view,  to  shew  I  did  not  belong  to.  ...  I  had  taken  Lock- 
hart's  Life  of  Sir  Walter  with  me,  as  far  as  it  had  appeared, 
and  his  letters  are  not  of  a  kind  to  induce  an  American  gentle 
man  to  build  much  on  casual  invitations,  ...  or  even  invita 
tions  of  more  emphasis.  There  is  very  little  kindly  feeling 

150 


1836-37]  LONDON 

towards  my  countrymen  among  the  nobility  or  those  who 
associate  with  them,  and  if,  perchance,  Sir  Walter  names  an 
American  in  kind  terms,  as  he  does  two  or  three,  you  are 
given  to  understand  that  he  regards  them  as  exceptions.  This 
is  not  exactly  the  temper  which  a  man  of  any  delicacy  is 
inclined  to  trespass  upon." 

He  did,  however,  see  a  certain  amount  of  London  society, 
of  which  the  journal  gives  a  few  glimpses. 

"  At  Sir  William  Alexander's  I  met  Mr.  Kindersley,  one 
of  the  foremost  men  at  the  Chancery  bar,  a  man  of  fine  breed 
ing,  with  a  most  attractive  countenance  and  an  easy  stream 
of  conversation,  which  I  could  strike  into  and  come  out  of  at 
any  time  without  raising  a  spray  like  the  sea  against  the 
Eddystone,  as  must  happen  when  you  encounter  an  uproari 
ous  and  engrossing  talker.  The  latter  happened  to  me  but 
once  in  London:  the  general  manner  was  that  of  Mr.  Kin 
dersley.  I  saw  at  the  same  house  a  letter  from  Sir  William 
.Grant  to  Chief  Baron  Alexander,  shewing  that  he  had  been 
offered  the  seals  and  had  declined  them,  a  fact  not  generally 
known.  At  Lord  Ashburton's  I  met  Mr.  Pemberton,  another 
of  the  Chancery  bar,  perhaps  at  its  head,  equally  quiet  and 
well-bred,  but  not  so  attractive  as  Mr.  Kindersley.  D'Israeli, 
the  author,  was  there,  a  great  dandy;  Lord  Lowther,  a  man 
apparently  of  strong  mind;  and  a  Mr.  Banks  ('  Conversa 
tion  Banks,'  he  was  called) ,  who  quite  overlaid  D'Israeli  with 
a  never-ending,  still  beginning  succession  of  histories,  bon- 
mots,  the  life  and  adventures  of  Lady  Cook,  etc.,  which  pre 
vents  my  remembering  a  single  word  that  either  of  them  said, 
except  that  when  Banks  was  about  to  speak  of  a  very  old 
lady,  D'Israeli  had  the  good  luck  to  deliver  himself  thus: 
*  Oh,  yes,  I  recollect, — 

She  lived  to  the  age  of  eighty-three 
And  died  by  a  fall  from  a  cherry-tree.' 
151 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  56 

"  Banks,  indeed,  overlaid  us  all,  but  he  smothered 
D'Israeli  for  spite,  the  rest  of  us  only  because  he  would 
have  split  himself  if  he  had  not  talked.  This  was  the  case 
of  violent  talk  to  which  I  alluded.  It  was  very  amusing, 
sometimes  very  droll;  but  in  the  presence  of  strangers,  for 
whom  the  dinner  was  made,  it  was  very  impudent.  At  Lord 
Lansdowne's  I  met  Lord  Glenelg,  the  Secretary  for  the 
Colonies,  a  very  dull  man,  I  think,  and  Sir  John  Franklin, 
the  traveller,  communicative  and  agreeable. 

"  [On  June  26,  1836]  I  dined  by  invitation  with  his 
Grace  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  to  meet  the  Prince  of 
Orange.  It  was  a  large  dinner  party,  of  perhaps  thirty, 
and  I  suppose  Sunday  was  selected  as  it  was  the  anniversary 
of  the  accession  of  the  King  to  the  throne.  The  hour  of 
dinner  was  seven  in  the  cards  of  invitation,  and  I  was  in  the 
picture  gallery  of  Apsley  House,  where  the  Duke  received 
his  guests,  a  few  minutes  after  that  hour ;  but  the  only  person 
before  me  was  Lord  Rosslyn,  an  intimate  personal  friend  of 
the  Duke.  The  rest  came  in  at  from  a  quarter  to  three- 
quarters  after  seven,  and  the  company  did  not  enter  the 
dining-room  until  after  eight.  Punctuality  therefore,  though 
one  of  the  Duke's  characteristics,  was  not  the  rule  among  all 
his  guests. 

"  The  Prince  of  Orange,  Lord  Rosslyn,  Lord  Aberdeen, 
the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Buccleugh,  the  Earl  and  Countess 
of  Wilton,  Lord  Burghersh  (son  of  the  Earl  of  Westmore 
land,  and  married  to  a  niece  of  the  Duke) ,  Lord  Fitzroy  Som 
erset,  Lord  Hill,  Prince  and  Princess  Galitzin,  M.  and  Mme. 
Dedel  (minister  of  the  Netherlands),  Sir  Charles  Bagot, 
were  among  the  guests.  The  Duke  presented  me  to  most  of 
the  gentlemen,  in  which  name  I  can  give  no  just  cause  of 
offence  by  comprehending  princes,  noblemen,  and  com 
moners.  It  is  the  highest  title  of  any  of  them.  The  Marquis 

152 


1836]  LONDON 

of  Down,  the  Duke's  oldest  son,  was  present,  quite  a  young 
man,  and  not  likely  to  make  the  world  forget  his  father,  and 
one  or  two  young  men  of  the  same  age,  one  of  whom  sat  next 
me  at  dinner  and  amused  me  by  his  flippancy, — telling  me 
that  the  Princess  Galitzin's  right  cheek  was  rouged  so  highly 
because  the  left  had  been  accidentally  burnt  to  that  colour; 
that  Lord  Hill,  who  was  on  his  left,  was  then  asking  the 
lady  who  sat  on  his  left,  who  he  was  (the  young  flip)  who 
sat  on  his  right,  and  he  should  like  to  hear  her  account, 
as  she  was  his  wife;  and  so  on  around  the  table  as  long  as 
I  would  listen  to  him.  The  person  on  my  right  was  Lord 
Rosslyn,  under  whose  care  the  Duke  placed  me,  and  by  him 
I  was  instructed  in  all  the  particulars  of  the  company  that 
a  stranger  might  not  be  presumed  to  know,  but  with  perfect 
breeding.  .  .  . 

'  The  dining-room  was  hung  round  with  portraits  at  full 
length  of  the  Emperor  Alexander,  the  King  of  Prussia,  the 
King  of  the  Netherlands,  Louis  XVIII.,  and  Charles  X.,  all 
by  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence;  and  the  table  was  a  sort  of  history 
of  some  of  the  Duke's  military  achievements.  A  silver 
plateau  of  perhaps  twenty  feet  long,  richly  wrought,  was  the 
gift  of  Portugal.  The  silver  and  gold  service  on  which  we 
dined  was,  I  think,  the  gift  of  the  city  of  London.  The 
china  on  which  the  dessert  was  served  was  the  gift  of  the 
King  of  Prussia,  each  plate  representing  some  battle  or  pub 
lic  event.  The  furniture  of  the  table,  and  it  was  very  splen 
did,  by  its  forms  or  the  devices  upon  it,  reminded  one  of  the 
Duke's  military  services,  and  this  it  may  be  thought  was  an 
objection  to  the  display  of  it  in  the  Duke's  house ;  but  it  should 
be  recollected  that  this  was  in  some  sort  a  public  dinner  to  a 
foreign  prince,  and  that  the  plate,  china,  and  table-service 
were  not  a  contribution  by  the  Duke  to  his  own  glorification, 
but  the  gift  of  grateful  princes  and  people.  Indeed,  the 

153 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JST.  56 

Duke's  personal  or  private  character  is  so  entirely  absorbed  in 
his  public  condition  and  relations  that  the  reserve  and  modesty 
of  a  private  man  would  be  regarded  as  affectation. 

"  In  his  address  and  demeanour  to  myself  he  was  as  un 
assuming  and  well-bred  a  person  as  I  ever  met.  He  looked 
thin  and  rather  careworn,  or  perhaps  I  mistook  for  this  what 
were  merely  the  traces  of  declining  health.  His  stature  is  of 
the  medium  height,  and  the  features  of  his  face  prominent, 
giving  the  expression  of  firmness  and  strength,  rather  than 
of  refinement.  I  was  particularly  struck  by  his  eyes,  to  which 
most  persons  resort  in  the  first  instance  for  an  introduction  of 
character,  and  which  surprised  me  by  a  total  absence  of  bril 
liancy,  and,  indeed,  of  almost  all  distinct  expression.  Their 
colour  seemed  to  be  like  lead,  a  dull  blue.  I  looked  again 
and  again  to  see  if  there  would  come  over  them  any  change, 
but  never  found  any.  They  were  neither  forbidding  nor 
inviting.  They  were  rather  cold,  far  from  being  unintelli 
gent,  and  as  far  from  being  penetrating.  They  were  by  no 
means  common  eyes,  and  yet  none  of  the  uncommon  qualities 
which  the  eyes  sometimes  shew  were  indicated  by  them. 
From  often  looking,  however,  the  impression  was  at  length 
made  upon  me  that  what  is  more  frequently  shewn  by 
the  bones  of  the  head  and  face,  and  what  both  the  head  and 
features  of  the  Duke  expressed  quite  strongly,  was  shewn 
most  strongly  by  these  dullish-blue  eyes, — an  imperturbable 
soul.  There  were  no  sharp  or  quick  glances  from  them,  noth 
ing  in  them  which  created  uneasiness  in  the  observer,  or  made 
him  unwilling  to  meet  their  regard  with  his  own,  but  there 
was  an  equableness  in  their  movement,  the  expression  of  a 
composed  and  self-dependent  mind,  which  you  would  say 
neither  good  nor  adverse  fortune,  however  sudden  or  extreme, 
could  disturb.  I  do  not  infer  this  from  his  character,  for  I 
do  not  know  it  to  be  his  character,  but  from  the  eyes  them- 

154 


1836]  LONDON 

selves,  which  I  at  first  thought  very  common,  and  after  much 
observation  I  came  to  think  the  most  uncommon  I  had  ever 
seen. 

'  The  Duke  was  dressed  as  a  private  gentleman,  that  is 
to  say,  in  a  black  coat  and  knee  breeches  of  the  same  colour, 
but  he  wore  the  garter  at  his  knee  and  the  riband  over  his 
shoulder,  as  did  the  Duke  of  Buccleugh.  The  Prince  of 
Orange  I  think  had  none  of  his  orders  on.  He  had  a  hearty 
and  frank  manner,  and  a  good  deal  the  air  of  a  roue.  His 
mouth  was  of  the  largest  and  coarsest,  and  no  very  good  teeth 
within.  He  spoke  English  with  freedom  enough,  but  with 
a  strong  accent,  and  such  questions  as  he  put  to  me,  and  the 
remarks  he  made,  indicated  nothing.  He  was  a  gallant  officer 
at  Waterloo,  and  was  wounded  on  the  present  site  of  the 
Mont  du  Lion.  Two  of  his  younger  sons  were  at  this  time 
in  England,  soliciting,  it  was  said,  the  regards  of  the  Princess 
Victoria.  Another  of  them  had  been  in  this  country,  and  had 
been  feted  by  the  citizens  of  Albany.  The  Prince  said  that 
they  had  been  kind  to  one  of  his  '  poys,'  but  seemed  to  take 
such  civilities  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  not  to  be  the  occasion 
of  any  particular  thanksgiving.  I  was  not  struck  by  anything 
as  much  as  by  the  heartiness  of  his  manner,  in  which,  however, 
there  was  no  bonhommie  whatever. 

"  Lord  Aberdeen,  rather  a  shy  and  awkward  man,  I 
should  say,  said  a  good  deal  to  me  of  General  Jackson's 
affair  with  France  about  the  Indemnity  Treaty,  and  praised 
him  much  for  the  spirit  with  which  he  managed  it.  I  could 
only  bow  in  token  of  my  hearing  him,  and  in  a  sort  of  re 
sponse  to  the  motive  of  his  remarks.  I  happened  to  differ  on 
the  point  from  his  lordship.  He  also  praised  Mr.  Van  Buren 
for  both  his  general  manners  in  society  and  his  cleverness  in 
diplomacy.  To  this  I  bowed  with  the  like  meaning.  It  was 
rather  singular  to  hear  these  praises  from  the  lips  of  the  high- 

155 


HORACE    BINNEY  [MT.  56-57 

est  Tory  in  England,  but  perhaps  there  was  a  congeniality.11 
I  had  a  letter  to  his  lordship  from  Mr.  McLane,  our  former 
minister,  but  I  did  not  deliver  it.  I  spoke  myself  with  some 
praise  of  Mr.  McLane,  and  Lord  Aberdeen  assented;  but 
he  seemed  to  contemplate  with  most  favour  the  two  person 
ages  first  mentioned. 

"  Lord  Hill,  with  whom  I  also  conversed,  seemed  to  me 
one  of  the  easiest  and  sleepiest  of  men,  unaffected  and  well- 
bred,  but  not  quite  awake.  On  the  field  of  battle  I  suppose 
he  was  lively  enough.  It  is  said  that  the  duke  could  always 
rely  on  all  the  orders  he  gave  to  Lord  Hill. 

"  The  Duke  of  Buccleugh  was  a  tall,  thin  stripling  in 
person,  with  the  air  of  a  man  of  fashion.  From  the  Duke 
of  Wellington's  calling  to  him  out  of  a  group  to  introduce 
me,  he  inferred,  I  suppose,  that  he  was  to  be  civil  to  me,  and 
accordingly  invited  me  to  a  party  that  the  duchess  was  to  give 
the  next  day.  He  said  he  should  not  be  there,  but  urged  me 
to  come,  and  said  the  duchess  would  be  glad  to  see  me.  He 
also  invited  me  to  Dalkeith,  where  he  would  be  in  the  autumn. 
The  duchess  was  a  short  sort  of  dairy-woman  in  appearance, 
young  like  himself,  and  as  hearty  a  laugher  at  table  as  I  ever 


"A  letter  written  by  Mr.   Binney  the   following  winter  shows  that   Lord 
Aberdeen  was  not  alone  in  his  opinion. 

"  It  is  not  a  little  edifying  to  hear  the  opinion  entertained  by  foreigners  of 
things  at  home.  The  highest  praise  I  heard  in  England  of  Jackson  and  Van 
Buren  was  from  the  Tories  of  the  strongest  cast.  Lord  Aberdeen  spoke  in  the 
strongest  praise  of  both,  and  especially  of  Jackson's  affair  with  France,  which  , 
had  very  much  raised  us.  On  the  Continent  Jackson's  name,  with  politicians  of  • 
every  cast,  is  in  better  odour  than  any  President's  since  Washington.  He  is 
praised  as  a  fine  writer,  a  man  of  indomitable  will,  a  sworn  enemy  to  corruption, 
and  a  true  patriot.  Van  Buren  will  succeed  to  his  praises,  unless  his  ignorance  of 
arms  shall  hurt  him.  I  rather  think,  however,  that,  coming  as  he  does  by  the  fiat 
of  his  predecessor,  he  will  succeed  to  his  reputation  in  all  points.  The  opposition 
must  be  content  to  pass  with  Europeans  generally  as  the  same  sort  of  faction 
which  exists  in  all  countries  and  endeavours  to  disturb  the  regular  course  of 
government." 

156 


1836-37]  LONDON 

met.  They  told  me  in  Scotland  that  she  did  not  laugh,  but 
cried  herself  into  the  Duke's  heart,  who,  on  taking  leave  of 
her  for  Scotland  the  day  after  he  had  seen  much  of  her  at 
a  dance,  could  not  resist  the  evidence  of  her  tears  that  he  had 
made  an  impression  upon  her,  and  gave  up  his  journey  to 
attend  to  the  more  urgent  business  of  drying  them  up. 

"  It  was  about  half -after  eight  that  a  note  was  delivered 
to  the  Duke,  and  he  read  it  to  his  guests.  It  was  from  M. 
Sebastiani,  the  French  minister,  announcing  the  attempt 
upon  the  life  of  the  King  by  Alibeau  the  previous  day,  and 
its  fortunate  miscarriage.  It  had  left  Paris  about  one  o'clock 
the  same  morning,  telegraphed,12  I  suppose,  to  Boulogne. 
The  Duke's  pronunciation  I  observed  to  be  quite  English.  .  . . 

"April  20,  1837.  Dined  at  Sir  William  Alexander's 
,with  Sir  John  Nicholl,  fresh,  though  much  advanced,  being 
upward  of  eighty.  Sir  John  informed  me  that  Mr.  King,  our 
minister  to  England,  and  himself  first  urged  Dr.  Robinson 
to  report  the  Admiralty  decisions  of  Sir  William  Scott.  He 
made  inquiries  of  me  concerning  Rufus  King  and  two  or 
three  other  Americans  whom  he  had  known  in  London,  and 
who  had  been  dead  perhaps  twenty  years.  In  this  respect  he 
was  like  many  other  eminent  men  I  saw,  who  took  no  sort 
of  interest  in  the  United  States  or  their  men  or  measures, 
unless  some  particular  personal  interest  had  awakened  their 
attention.  He  asked  about  General  Ira  Allen  also,  who  had 
been  dead  perhaps  forty,  and  amused  himself  by  telling  me 
of  the  general's  admiralty  suit,  in  which  Sir  John  was  his 
Counsel.  He  had  been  captured  with  arms,  going  somewhere 
upon  a  Yankee  errand  to  make  the  most  of  a  bargain,  without 
much  regard  to  the  law  of  contraband.  Sir  James  Marriott 
bad  determined  to  condemn,  and  Allen,  who  meant  to  shew 


Semaphore  telegraph. 
157 


HORACE    BINNEY  [MT.  56-57 

he  was  not  frightened,  went  into  court  in  his  Continental 
regimentals.  Sir  John  told  him  he  might  make  what  fence 
he  pleased,  Sir  James  would  leap  over  it  all ;  and  Allen  said, 
'  Well,  all  I  ask  is  that  you  will  make  it  as  high  as  you  can.' 
He  seemed  to  retain  a  vivid  recollection  and  even  relish  of  i 
Allen's  strongly  marked  character,  and  of  his  Yankee  Doric 
especially,  of  which  Sir  John  gave  me  specimens.  .  .  . 

"  It  was  at  [a  musical]  soiree  [in  1836]  that  I  first  saw 
Mr.  Samuel  Rogers,  whom  I  afterwards  had  the  pleasure  to 
know.  I  saw  a  quiet-looking  old  gentleman,  in  a  black  frock 
coat  and  white  cravat,  with  a  perfectly  white  and  nearly  hair 
less  head,  sitting  in  a  sort  of  dreamy  mood  on  one  of  the 
benches,  neither  talking,  nor  looking,  nor  apparently  listen 
ing,  but,  as  far  as  he  was  engaged  with  anything,  seeming 
to  be  occupied  with  something  that  was  going  on  within 
himself.  He  was  no  doubt  shutting  out  all  the  sights  around 
him,  and  deadening  his  ears  to  every  sound  except  that  of  the 
music,  that  he  might  the  better  take  in  its  exquisite  strains. 
[Malibran,  Grisi,  La  Blache,  Tamburini,  Rubini,  Thalberg, 
and  Costa  were  the  artists.]  This  was  Mr.  Samuel  Rogers, 
the  poetical,  the  conversational,  the  amiable,  the  truly  well- 
bred,  the  refined,  the  elegant  in  mind  and  spirit.  I  never 
before  liked  any  man  so  much  upon  a  week's  acquaintance, 
and  that  a  very  slight  one  even  for  a  week.  ... 

"  May  1,  1837.  A  pleasant  dinner  at  Dunlop's,  with  S. 
Rogers  and  Leslie.  Rogers's  account  of  the  stuffed  footmen 
on  the  Cardinal's  coach,  whom  the  horses  of  the  Cardinal 
following  ate  up  from  desperate  hunger  before  they  arrived 
at  the  Vatican,  was  as  good  and  as  English  as  Hogarth's 
Calais  Gate.  Even  such  an  Englishman  as  Rogers  (one  of 
the  best)  relishes  a  joke  at  the  emptiness  of  foreign  preten 
sions  to  style  and  grandeur.  I  heard  him  speak  of  the  poet 
Coleridge  as  gone  in  intemperance,  both  of  rum  and  tobacco 

158 


'     ! 


1836-37]  LONDON 

.  .  .  Yet  he  said  he  had  written  beautiful  poetry,  and  was 
capable  of  writing  better  still.  Leslie  spoke  of  Rubens  in 
very  high  terms,  of  Murillo  in  low.  He  said  his  Madonnas 
were  peasants.  .  .  . 

"  June  5,  1837.  A  very  pleasant  day,  fully  employed, 
beginning  with  a  breakfast  with  Mr.  Rogers,  whose  kind 
manners  to  my  girls  and  the  ease  and  friendliness  of  his  talk 
were  very  engaging.  I  do  not  wonder  that  he  is  so  universal 
a  favourite.  He  opened  his  private  study  to  us,  shewed  us 
the  original  contract  with  Milton  for  the  Paradise  Lost, — I 
think  £5  was  the  price  of  the  work, — and  gave  us  a  profu 
sion  of  anecdotes  in  his  quiet  way,  of  all  ways  the  best.  Be 
hind  my  chair  at  breakfast  was  a  carved  stand,  the  work  of 
Chantry,  which  Mr.  Rogers  had  purchased  he  knew  not  where 
nor  why ;  but  as  Chantry  was  dining  with  him  the  first  time, 
he  described  this  stand,  and  told  Mr.  Rogers  that  it  was  his 
work  while  he  was  apprentice  to  a  cabinet-maker.  Cooper 
(our  Cooper),  he  said,  did  not  take  in  London.  He  was 
huffy  and  stood  upon  his  own  dignity:  wouldn't  go  to  the 
Duke  of  Devonshire's  because  the  Duke  had  not  first  called 
upon  him.  .  .  . 

"  June  3,  1837.  I  passed  a  very  delightful  hour  in  the 
parlour  of  the  Russian  minister,  Pozzo  di  Borgo,  at  his  house 
in  Dover  Street.  I  should  not  record,  even  here,  the  remarks 
of  a  public  man  on  public  measures  of  his  own  country  if 
they  were  such  as  he  ought  not  to  have  expressed;  but  I 
suppose  them  to  have  contained  nothing  that  he  had  not  ex 
pressed  before,  and  at  all  events  that  he  might  not  safely  have 
expressed  to  any  one.  He  was  not  questioned  by  me  to  a 
single  point.  He  did  not  question  me.  He  probably  knew 
from  the  gentleman  who  presented  me  to  him  that  I  should 
not  repeat  what  he  had  said,  and  he  talked  freely  and  com 
municatively  of  what  he  thought  would  interest  me  most. 

159 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^ET.  56-57 


Two  full-length  portraits  in  the  room,  Alexander  and  Nicho 
las,  did  not  fail  to  attract  me  during  my  visit,  and  I  said  a 
word  of  praise  in  regard  to  the  original  of  the  one  who  had 
run  his  race.  He  said  they  were  two  very  different  men. 
Alexander  was  amiable,  he  had  beaucoup  d'amenite.  Nicho 
las  was  un  homme  de  tele,  by  which  I  supposed  him  to  mean 
that  he  had  not  much  heart.  This  was  the  only  remark  he 
made  concerning  his  present  master.  Alexander  was,  more 
over,  a  prince  whom  he  had  found  it  safe  as  well  as  honour 
able  to  serve.  He  had  differed  from  him  in  regard  to  a  point 
of  policy  to  such  an  extent  that  he  was  prepared  for  leaving 
the  Emperor's  service.  The  coolness  was  mutual  and  lasted 
for  some  time.  Pozzo  di  Borgo  could  not  surrender  his 
opinion,  nor  would  Alexander  surrender  his.  At  length  the 
Emperor  said  to  him  one  day,  '  The  subject  on  which  we 
differ  you  no  longer  mention.'  '  I  cannot  hope  to  change 
your  Majesty's  opinion.'  '  And  you  do  not  mean  to  change 
your  own;  mais  les  gens  Jionorables  sexpliquent!  And 
then  the  Emperor  entered  upon  a  conversation  in  which  he 
did  full  justice  to  his  minister,  and  finally  declared  himself 
satisfied  with  the  minister's  views,  and  dismissed  him  from 
the  interview  with  great  cordiality.  The  point  of  difference 
regarded  Poland.  But  Pozzo  di  Borgo,  though  a  friend  to 
Poland,  said  that  setting  up  that  government  would  be  a  fatal 
example  to  Russia,  and  could  not  be  thought  of.  The  chain, 
he  had  thought,  might  have  been  lightened. 

"  He  was  no  friend,  he  said,  to  unchangeable  constitu 
tions,  like  ours,  for  changeable  people.  The  excellence  of  the 
English  Constitution  was  that  as  the  people  changed,  the 
constitution  was  changed  with  it  by  the  legislative  power. 
The  rigour  of  our  written  Constitution  prevented  this,  and 
exposed  us  to  spasms. 

"  The  great  point  in  the  administration  of  modern  na- 

160 


1836-37]  LONDON 

tions  was  not  the  balance  of  power,  but  the  balance  of  parties. 
The  desideratum  was  so  to  balance  parties  that  the  respon 
sible  party  should  have  strength  enough  to  carry  out  its  own 
measures,  without  having  enough  to  be  above  responsibility 
for  great  faults. 

"  He  was  in  Paris  during  the  trois  jours,  and  had  con 
versations  with  Louis  Philippe  on  the  subject.  Whether  it 
was  the  opinion  of  Louis  Philippe  or  of  himself  I  do  not 
recollect, — probably  they  concurred, — that  the  only  way  of 
restraining  or  bridling  the  democratic  principle  was  by  insti 
tutions,  by  which  I  understood  the  army,  the  navy,  the  public 
establishments  of  every  kind,  judicial,  administrative,  etc. 
His  opinion,  as  well  as  that  of  every  one  with  whom  I  spoke, 
was  that  the  King  was  fully  adequate  to  his  position. 

'  The  point  on  which  he  was  most  explicit  was  on  the  per 
fect  and  irresistible  power  of  Russia  over  the  fate  of  Turkey. 
It  was  in  the  interest  of  Russia  to  sustain  Turkey,  and  not  to 
destroy  her.  The  latter  was  as  easily  done  as  willed,  and 
England  could  not  possibly  prevent  it.  But  she  had  no 
reason  to  apprehend  it.  Turkey  was  a  frontier  that  was 
useful  to  Russia.  He  did  all  but  say  that  the  policy  of 
Turkey  was  the  policy  of  Russia. 

"  I  do  not  mean  to  be  understood  as  having  adopted  all 
the  opinions  the  minister  expressed,  but  his  conversation  was 
very  agreeable,  and,  like  his  master  Alexander,  *  full  of 
amenity.' ' 

To  a  man  of  Mr.  Binney's  observing  and  reflecting  mind 
the  social  characteristics  of  the  English  people  were  very  in 
teresting,  especially  in  their  points  of  contrast  with  the  Amer 
ican  characteristics  of  that  day.  Some  of  his  observations 
may  therefore  properly  be  recorded  here. 

"  It  was  quite  natural  that  those  things  in  London  should 
strike  me  most  which  are  most  in  contrast  with  things  in  my 

11  161 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  56-57 

own  country;  and  this  contrast  is  not  seen  in  houses,  furni 
ture,  dress,  equipage,  or  externals  of  any  kind,  so  much  as 
in  certain  habits  and  opinions. 

"  In  the  United  States  we  have  no  rank  nor  titles,  no 
privileged  class,  no  class  of  any  kind  acknowledged  by  the 
Constitution.  There  is  no  inferiority  by  law,  nor  even  sub 
ordination  of  any  portion  of  the  people  to  any  other  portion. 
The  condition  of  all  under  the  Constitution  is  equality.  The 
tendency  of  the  people  in  point  of  fact  is  to  something  more 
than  equality,  to  a  general  striking  or  sinking  of  everything 
to  a  uniform  surface.  .  .  . 

"  If  superiority  of  conventional  rank  is  asserted  by  any 
one,  it  is  positively  offensive  to  all  whom  it  effects  to  under 
value.  The  distinction  of  circles  with  their  separate  centres, 
a  distinction  which  necessarily  exists  in  our  large  cities,  is  the 
occasion  of  jealousy  and  ill-will  to  all  who  do  not  move  in  that 
which  claims  to  be  superior;  and  the  jealousy  and  ill-will  are 
.  .  .  greater  where  there  is  some  reason  for  the  distinction 
than  where  there  is  none,  which  shews  the  inveteracy  of  the 
objection  against  distinction  at  all.  .  .  . 

"  In  England  everything  admonishes  you  of  an  estab 
lished  distinction  in  ranks,  which  seems  to  be  regarded  as  the 
order  of  nature  rather  than  an  institution  of  man,  and  it  sib 
naturally  upon  all.  I,  of  course,  do  not  include  political  re 
formers  or  radicals,  some  of  whom  are  for  pulling  dowr 
everything,  and  may  therefore,  for  aught  I  know,  feel  a,< 
spitefully  towards  rank  and  title  as  they  do  towards  property 
and  law.  .  .  . 

"  In  all  grades  which  I  had  an  opportunity  of  ob 
serving,  there  is  not  only  an  acknowledgment  of  superiorito 
in  certain  classes,  but  habitual  respect  for  them  on  that  ac 
count.  A  nobleman  is  everywhere  received  as  a  person  spe 
cially  entitled  to  deference  on  account  of  his  rank,  withou 

162 


1836-37]         SOCIETY   IN   ENGLAND 

regard  to  his  personal  merits.  No  person  below  the  grade 
of  nobility  questions  his  title  to  precedence,  or  desires  to  ques 
tion  it,  or  is  made  uncomfortable  by  it.  It  was  sad  folly  in 
one  of  our  countrymen  to  think  he  was  slighted  by  a  noble 
man  who  went  before  him  into  a  drawing-room  where  they 
were  visiting  together.  It  would  have  shocked  the  prevailing 
sense  of  propriety  had  it  been  otherwise.  It  was  not  a  ques 
tion  of  politeness  or  civility,  but  a  settled  point  in  the  consti 
tutional  law  of  society.  It  would  have  been  deemed  absurd 
[for  the  nobleman]  to  have  entered  last,  and  mere  gaucherie 
in  the  American  to  have  gone  before  him.  The  gentry  receive 
in  like  manner  the  special  consideration  of  the  tradesmen,  and 
the  tradesmen  of  the  mechanics,  the  classes  above  of  the 
classes  below.  Society  in  England  rises  from  a  broad  base 
by  regular  gradations  to  a  point.  No  one  seems  to  dislike  the 
person  above  him  for  that  cause,  any  more  than  the  under 
stone  dislikes  the  upper  one  in  a  pyramid.  All  are  striving 
to  get  above  their  actual  condition,  because  they  esteem  what 
is  above  it,  and  not  to  pull  down  or  sneer  down  what  is  above 
to  their  own  level.  If  there  is  ill-will  or  contention  among 
them  on  the  score  of  pretension,  it  is  between  persons  of  the 
same  class,  whose  pretensions  are  not  settled  by  prescription 
nor  perhaps  by  anything  like  general  assent. 

"  Rank  among  the  nobility  is  as  well  settled  in  the  main 
as  if  a  statute  of  the  realm  had  established  its  degrees.  In 
deed,  it  is  a  part  of  the  common  law;  and  the  nobility  do  not 
seem  to  assert  its  claims  with  more  vigilance  than  commoners 
are  willing  to  concede  them.  I  was  introduced  to  the  wife 
of  a  knight,  I  think,  perhaps  a  baronet,  as  Lady  D.,  and  I 
was  told  immediately  afterwards  by  my  introducer,  to  exalt 
my  conception  of  her,  that  she  was  a  lady  in  her  own  right. 
She  was  a  daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Minto;  she  was  of  course 
more  in  reverence  than  a  lady  by  marriage.  ...  I  was  never 

163 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^T.  56 


asked  to  precede  a  nobleman  at  any  dinner  to  which  I  was 
invited,  except  once,  and  then  I  think  by  mere  accident. 
Where  commoners  alone  were  present,  I  was  treated  as 
strangers  are  always  treated  among  equals.  This  is  not  a 
matter  of  ceremony  so  much  as  it  is  of  habitual  feeling,  a 
part  of  an  Englishman's  nature.  I  noticed  it  everywhere,  I 
and  I  may  say  it  never  annoyed  me." 

The  journal  contains  many  observations  upon  institu-  j 
tions  and  customs,  some  of  them  wholly  unknown  in  America 
at  that  time,  but  which  have  since  become  thoroughly  estab-  ! 
lished  here,  with  but  little  modification.    The  clubs,  the  police, 
the  "  two-penny  post,"  the  well-kept,  macadamized  streets, 
the  attractive  squares,  the  markets,  the  methods  of  adver 
tising,  all  interested  Mr.  Binney,  not  merely  as  novelties, 
but  as  features  of  English  life  which  American  life,  as  it 
developed,  was  certain  to  resemble  more  or  less.     The  ad 
vantage  of  a  well-disciplined  police,  a  civilian  body,  not  a; 
gendarmerie,  impressed   particularly  his   order-loving  and 
law-revering  mind. 

"  Our  own  cities  must  have  this  force  in  time,  or  there 
will  be  no  living  in  them.  A  military  police  is  out  of  the 
question.  Our  people  will  not,  any  more  than  the  English, 
bear  the  appearance  of  arms.  The  secret  of  Sir  Robert  Peel's 
metropolitan  force  is  in  its  citizens'  dress,  with  just  distinc 
tion  enough  to  identify  the  individual  and  his  office,  constant 
movement  on  duty,  quiet  in  the  performance  of  it,  and  such 
discipline  as  to  produce  union  and  concert  in  the  masses  when  , 
they  are  brought  to  act  against  mobs." 


164 


1836]  FRANCE 


VIII 

EUROPEAN    TOUR  (CONTINUED) 

1836-1837 

ENTERING  France  at  the  beginning  of  July,  1836, 
Mr.  Binney  was  for  the  first  time  brought  face  to 
face  with  the  militarism  which,  then  as  now,  domi 
nated  the  Continent,  and  it  made  a  strong  impression  on  his 
mind.  He  wrote : 

'  There  was  one  feature  in  Paris — I  might  say,  in 
France — that  was  in  most  disadvantageous  contrast  with 
London  and  England.  The  day  of  Napoleon  had  passed, 
and  a  charter  and  a  representative  legislature  had  been  sub 
stituted  for  the  personal  will  of  the  Emperor,  and  also  of 
the  Bourbons;  yet  the  metropolis  and  the  country  at  large 
were  obviously  under  military  subjection.  I  do  not  mean 
that  the  government  of  the  city  or  of  the  country  was  in 
the  ordinary  sense  military,  but  everywhere  military  means 
seemed  to  constitute  the  principal  reliance  of  the  government 
for  the  execution  of  the  laws.  I  have  remarked  that  a  mili 
tary  guard  was  always  detailed  for  the  theatres  which  I 
visited.  I  must  add  that  there  was  not  a  day,  nor  perhaps 
an  hour  of  any  day,  that  large  bodies  of  either  the  regular 
army  or  the  National  Guard  were  not  marching  by  the  doors 
of  the  hotel.  They  were  regularly  reviewed,  several  times  a 
week,  in  the  Place  du  Carrousel,  immediately  adjacent  to  the 
Palace  of  the  Tuileries,  and  on  Monday  morning  of  each 
week  the  Place  Vendome  was  the  scene  of  such  cases  of  mili 
tary  degradation  as  had  occurred  in  the  past  week,  to  be 
publicly  administered.  The  large  square  was  on  these  occa- 

165 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^T.  56 


sions  densely  crowded  with  soldiers,  and  in  the  immediate 
presence  of  the  column,  and  of  the  hero  whose  awkward 
cocked-hat  crowns  it,  the  soldier  who  had  disgraced  his  pro 
fession  was  stripped  of  his  uniform  or  received  the  other  in 
flictions  which  his  sentence  required.  Vast  numbers  of  the 
Parisians  attended  this  sometimes  dramatic  scene,  and  prob 
ably  felt  that  the  martial  law  was  as  much  for  them  as  for 
the  soldiers.  I  do  not  know  that  I  could  at  any  time  have 
looked  a  hundred  yards  ahead  in  Paris  without  seeing  several, 
and  often  many,  armed  and  uniformed  men.  Often  in  the 
country,  when  all  within  the  reach  of  my  eye  was  with  one 
exception  peaceful  in  the  highest  degree,  the  gens  d'armes  on 
horseback,  armed  to  the  teeth,  seemed  to  shew  that  the  gen 
eral  rule  was  not  only  proved  by  the  exception,  but  depended 
upon  it.  ...  These  ever-present  soldiers  did  not  impair  the 
sense  of  my  security,  for  I  believed  that  their  duty  was  to 
enforce  just  and  equal  laws,  as  far  as  the  condition  of  things 
permitted  such  laws;  but  they  made  me  feel  unequal  to  my 
own  defence,  an  uncomfortable  and  belittling  sensation, 
which  no  one  feels  in  this  country,  and  which  I  confess  I 
never  felt  in  any  part  of  England." 

A  letter  to  Judge  White,  written  after  he  had  seen  more 
of  the  Continent,  refers  to  the  same  condition  everywhere 
except  in  Switzerland,  and  says,  "  What  the  people  say  of  it, 
it  did  not  become  me  to  ask.  What  they  thought  of  it,  I  did 
not  fail  to  conjecture.  In  their  place  I  think  I  should  say  it 
was  an  honest  power,  in  saying  plainly  what  it  meant  to  have, 
and  if  there  was  room  anywhere  else  in  the  world,  I  should 
try  to  get  away  from  it." 

Mr.  Binney  was  naturally  interested  in  French  legal  pro 
cedure,  but  found  little  to  admire  in  it. 

"  I  expressed  to  the  Duke  of  Bassano,  whom  I  met  at 
the  table  of  a  friend,  my  desire  to  witness  a  jury  trial  in  Paris, 

166 


1836]  PARIS 

and  he  obtained  from  the  Advocate-General,  M.  Plughem, 
the  knowledge  that  a  capital  case  was  then  on  trial  before  the 
Cour  d'Assises,  in  which  Berryer  was  counsel  for  the  defend 
ant,  and  an  invitation  to  me  to  attend.  I  accordingly  went 
to  the  Palais  de  Justice  and  had  a  seat  given  me  on  the  same 
platform  with  the  judges,  a  customary  civility  to  strangers. 

'  The  defendant's  name  was  Dehors,  and  he  was  accused, 
indicted,  we  should  say,  of  arson.  He  was  a  proprietor,  or 
farmer,  and  the  burning  of  his  neighbour's  barn  was  attrib 
uted  to  malice,  personal  or  political.  Something  in  the  case, 
its  gravity  as  a  crime  perhaps,  more  probably  something  in 
the  public  excitement,  had  enlisted  Berryer,  who,  in  the  Duke 
of  Bassano's  note  to  me,  was  styled  *  premier  orateur  de 
France'  He  was  the  only  counsel  retained  for  the  de 
fendant. 

"  The  president  of  the  court,  with  two  assistants,  one  on 
each  side  of  him,  and  the  Advocate-General,  occupied  the 
bench.  The  prisoner  was  in  a  long  box  or  enclosed  seat  in 
front  of  the  bench,  to  the  left,  a  little  elevated  above  the  seat 
occupied  by  his  counsel.  The  witnesses  were  in  front  of  what 
we  should  call  the  bar-table,  and  on  the  right,  in  a  box  corre 
sponding  to  that  of  the  prisoner,  were  the  jury.  The  fine 
head  of  Berryer,  and  his  keen,  full  eye,  struck  me  as  soon  as 
I  had  taken  my  place,  and  I  soon  became  acquainted  with  his 
commanding  voice  and  person. 

"  I  was,  of  course,  most  struck,  and  perhaps  exclusively, 
with  the  points  of  difference  between  this  jury  trial  and  those 
I  had  been  accustomed  to.  The  president  himself  swore  the 
witnesses,  and  alone  examined  them,  or,  rather,  put  the  ques 
tions  to  them.  The  oath  had  no  reference  to  a  belief  in  God 
or  in  a  future  state.  It  was  in  these  words:  '  Vous  jurez, 
sans  haine  et  sans  crainte,  de  dire  la  verite,  toute  la  verite  et 
rien  que  la  verite.'  The  words  *  sans  haine  et  sans  crainte' 

167 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Ex.  56 

might  as  well  have  been  omitted.  They  do  not  comprehend, 
or  rather  exclude,  a  more  frequent  cause  of  bias  than  either 
hatred  or  fear,  namely  favour  or  affection,  or  the  hope  of 
gain  or  reward.  The  omission  of  the  common  reference  in 
English  and  American  oaths  may  possibly  be  explained  by 
the  want  of  sufficient  religion  in  the  people  generally  to  make 
it  of  any  influence. 

"  The  practice  of  putting  the  questions  by  the  judge  is 
the  worst  possible  to  obtain  the  truth  from  a  witness,  unless 
two  cases  are  supposed, — that  the  witness  is  honest,  and  that 
the  judge  is  unbiassed.  Neither  of  them  is  so  general  as  to 
make  them  the  proper  foundation  of  a  general  rule.  In 
cases  which  affect  the  appointing  power,  as  political  cases 
nearly  always  do,  it  is  a  terrible  weight  in  the  scale  of  oppres 
sion  to  have  the  facts  brought  before  the  jury  in  the  colours 
which  a  corrupt  and  adroit  judge  may  always  give  to  them 
by  the  language  of  his  questions.  Moreover,  an  impartial 
mind  is  not  the  best  to  ascertain  the  facts,  though  it  is  de 
cidedly  the  best  to  weigh  them.  Two  or  more  opposing  coun 
sel,  professionally  partial  on  each  side,  and  pulling  each  his 
own  way,  most  frequently  strike  the  line  of  the  facts. 
Though  their  contrary  forces  are  respectively  tending  to  a 
false  conclusion,  the  impartial  judge  is  generally  able  to  see 
what  is  the  true  resolution  of  them.  If  a  judge  who  ex 
amines  the  witnesses  is  partial,  his  bias  will  find  its  way  into 
all  the  evidence ;  and  if  he  is  impartial,  the  danger  is  that  he 
will  not  detect  and  counteract  the  bias  of  the  witnesses.  For 
the  discovery  of  truth  by  the  judge,  both  in  fact  and  in  law, 
the  best  instruments  in  the  world  to  assist  him  are  opposing 
examiners  and  counsel.  The  conflict  will  strike  it  out,  as  the 
spark  is  struck  out  by  the  flint  and  steel. 

"  The  advantage  of  a  cross-examination  is,  moreover, 
almost  lost  by  [the  French  system]  to  the  adverse  party. 

168 


1836]  PARIS 

The  mere  delay  is  sufficient  to  enable  a  prevaricating  witness 
to  collect  himself,  and  the  judge,  if  he  disapproves  the  de 
sign  of  counsel,  may  defeat  it  by  varying  the  terms  of  the 
question.  The  objections  to  the  practice  are,  indeed,  endless, 
unless  we  adopt  a  wholly  inadmissible  theory, — that  both  the 
counsel  and  the  judge  always  want  to  learn  the  truth,  and  the 
witnesses  always  to  speak  it.  It  can  answer  only  one  good 
purpose  that  I  can  discern, — namely,  to  prevent  counsel  from 
brow-beating  or  bewildering  a  timid  witness,  a  case  that 
rarely  occurs,  and  will  never  occur  if  the  judge  does  his  duty. 

"  Neither  in  the  questions  nor  in  the  answers  could  I  per 
ceive  that  there  was  any  reference  whatever  to  the  rules  of 
evidence,  as  we  acknowledge  them.  .  .  .  Indeed,  I  believe 
the  only  rules  that  the  criminal  courts  follow  in  regard  to  evi 
dence  are  those  which  estimate  its  weight,  after  it  is  heard  or 
received.  Nothing  would  seem  to  be  excluded.  Unless  juries 
in  France  are  much  more  perfect  tribunals  than  in  England 
or  America,  parties  have  no  safety  in  either  criminal  or  civil 
cases,  unless  the  evidence  is  scanned  before  it  is  heard.  I  have 
had  sufficient  experience  to  know  that  judges  are  a  thousand 
times  better  triers  of  evidence  than  juries,  and  that  the  latter 
should  not  be  permitted  to  hear  anything  that  is  not,  in  the 
language  of  our  law,  competent.  It  may  look  captious  in 
counsel  to  be  forever  objecting  to  incompetent  testimony; 
and  unless  the  judge  will  support  him,  it  may  sometimes  hurt 
his  case  with  juries,  such  as  they  have  been  made  by  flattery 
and  by  unreasonable  deference,  to  the  prejudice  of  the  right 
ful  authority  of  the  court.  But  it  is  the  true  course  for 
counsel,  and  if  I  were  to  live  my  professional  life  over  again, 
I  would  follow  it  even  more  than  I  have  done. 

"  The  mode  of  examination,  and  the  latitude  taken  in  it, 
gave  rise  to  the  most  dramatic  scene  I  have  ever  beheld  out 
of  a  theatre.  A  witness  who  was  under  examination  stated 

169 


HORACE    BINNEY  MT.  56 


that  when  the  alarm  of  fire  was  first  given  in  the  village  the 
defendant  was  seen  by  him  in  a  certain  position.  The  presi 
dent  said  that  this  seemed  to  be  in  contradiction  to  what 
another  witness  had  said,  who  had  been  examined  the  pre 
ceding  day;  and  he  called  that  witness  up  and  made  him 
repeat.  He  not  only  repeated,  but  said  that  at  the  time  the 
first  witness  mentioned  the  defendant  was  elsewhere  ;  and  the 
president  immediately  asked  the  defendant  (and  in  a  capital 
case,  too!)  how  that  was.  The  defendant  rose  and  not  only 
denied,  but  vouched  another  witness  to  contradict,  what  had 
just  been  said,  which  witness  the  president  also  called  and 
examined;  and  thus  there  were  three  witnesses  on  the  stage, 
with  the  defendant  (whom  all  Berryer's  efforts  could  not 
silence),  the  president  of  the  court,  and  the  parti  civil,  the 
prosecutor,  all  talking  at  once,  and  with  about  as  much 
vivacity  as  I  had  seen  the  same  number  of  persons  a  night 
or  two  before  go  through  a  scene  at  the  Theatre  Fran9ais. 
How  the  truth  fared  in  the  melee  I  was  not  sufficiently 
acquainted  with  the  bearings  of  the  facts  to  know.  As  soon 
as  the  colloquy  was  over,  the  president  went  on  as  before  with 
the  first  witness. 

"  All  this  time  the  jury  did  not  seem  to  be  thought  of. 
The  witnesses  spoke  to  the  judge,  the  judge  to  the  witnesses, 
and  the  jury  took  no  part  even  in  the  lively  scene  I  have  just 
mentioned.  The  case  turned  too  much  upon  a  conflict  of 
testimony  to  be  interesting  to  me,  and  I  left  the  court  after 
hearing  Berry  er  on  some  incidental  matters,  without  return 
ing  the  next  day  to  hear  his  summing  up  to  the  jury.  On 
one  of  these  points  I  recollect  his  drawing  himself  up  to  his 
height,  and,  with  the  roar  and  violence  of  a  cataract,  abso 
lutely  burying  in  the  deep  an  official  of  some  kind  who  ap 
peared  to  be  of  counsel  with  the  prosecutor,  and  who  had 
presumed  to  deny  something  that  Berryer  had  said.  The 

170 


1836]  PARIS 

defendant  was  finally  acquitted,  and  then  I  saw  in  one  of 
the  French  papers  that  Berryer  had  refused  to  take  for  him 
self  the  fee  which  Dehors  had  made  up  for  him,  but  had  given 
it  as  a  portion  to  Dehors's  daughter,  who  was  engaged  to  be 
married:  all  a  la  mode  francaise" 

While  in  Paris  Mr.  Binney  met  Baron  Pichon,  whom  he 
had  previously  known  as  charge  d'affaires  of  the  French 
legation  at  Washington,  and  who,  in  1796-97  had  held  a  post 
in  the  office  of  Talleyrand,  then  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs. 
The  baron  told  Mr.  Binney  of  an  incident  of  that  day,  which 
the  journal  records  as  follows: 

"  It  is  well  known  that  the  French  government  regarded 
the  recall  of  Mr.  Monroe  by  General  Washington  with  dis 
satisfaction,  and  would  not  receive  and  accredit  General 
Pinckney,  who  was  appointed  minister  to  France  in  his  place. 
At  Mr.  Monroe's  audience  of  leave,  Barras,  who  was  chief 
of  the  Executive  Directory,  made  a  reply  to  Monroe's  fare 
well  speech,  and  took  occasion  in  it  to  distinguish  between 
the  people  of  the  United  States  and  their  government,  in  a 
manner  highly  insulting  to  the  administration,  and  which 
kindled  a  flame  of  resentment  in  all  the  people  who  were  not 
already  taken  in  the  snares  of  Mr.  Jefferson.  The  speech 
of  Barras,  Baron  Pichon  informed  us,  was  to  his  knowledge 
prepared  by  Tom  Paine  at  the  instance  of  Mr.  Monroe,1  with 
the  approbation,  of  course,  of  Talleyrand,  Barras,  and 
others.  The  refusal  of  the  Directory  to  accredit  General 
Pinckney  was,  he  also  said,  the  work  of  Mr.  Monroe.  The 
object  of  this  treasonable  complot  was  to  bear  upon  parties 
in  the  United  States,  and  to  sustain  the  Democratic  party 
under  their  defeat  in  the  recent  election  of  Mr.  Adams  to  the 
Presidency. 

1  Monroe's  connection  with  the  speech  is  denied  by  his  admirers.  There  is, 
of  course,  no  legal  proof  of  it. 

171 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Ex.  56 

"  I  am  not  aware  that  Baron  Pichon  had  any  motive 
whatever  for  misrepresentation.  I  do  not  believe  that  he 
misrepresented  the  facts  in  the  slightest  degree.  The  papers, 
he  said,  passed  under  his  own  eye  in  the  Bureau  des  Affaires 
Etrangeres.  His  post  was  a  confidential  one.  He  held  it 
through  the  period  of  the  interrupted  relations  between 
France  and  the  United  States  which  ensued,  and  was  confi 
dentially  employed  by  Talleyrand  to  bring  about  a  restora 
tion  of  them,  which  began  in  a  correspondence  between 
Pichon  and  Vans  Murray,  the  American  minister  in  Holland. 
Mr.  Adams  was  much  censured  for  again  sending  ministers 
to  France,  after  the  return  of  Marshall  and  his  colleagues, 
without  some  amends  from  France  for  their  treatment  of 
our  envoys.  His  act  increased  the  divisions  of  the  Federal 
party,  which  finally  destroyed  it.  Had  he  been  aware  of  this 
anecdote,  it  would  before  this  have  made  a  figure  in  the 
political  history  of  the  United  States,  as  well  as  in  the  private 
history  of  Mr.  Monroe.  General  Washington,  it  must  be 
admitted,  was  an  admirable  judge  of  men.  Though  he  ap 
pointed  Monroe,  the  latter  never  had  his  confidence,  nor 
deserved  it." 

During  Mr.  Binney's  visits  to  Paris  there  were  many 
signs  of  the  political  unrest  which  prevailed  in  Louis 
Philippe's  reign,  and  which  has,  indeed,  prevailed  more  or  less 
ever  since.  His  journal  contains  a  few  references  to  the  state 
of  popular  feeling. 

"July  19, 1836.  .  .  .  At  the  close  of  the  entertainment  [at ; 
a  circus]  a  little  fellow,  called  in  the  bill  Le  petit  Auriol,  came 
forward  in  the  mimic  dress  and  hat,  and  with  mimic  manners, 
of  Buonaparte.  He  did  not  say  a  word ;  but  he  walked,  and 
put  his  hands  behind  his  back,  and  took  snuff,  and  moved  his 
head  up  and  down  without  moving  his  body,  and  at  every  new 
turn  the  whole  house  bore  testimony  to  the  faithfulness  of 

172 


1836]  PARIS 

the  imitation.  But  the  manner  in  which  they  did  it  was  what 
struck  me  most.  There  were  no  vivas  or  huzzas  at  any  time 
of  the  performance,  very  little  clapping,  indeed.  Through 
out,  the  spectators,  as  at  every  French  spectacle  that  I  saw, 
were  as  far  from  an  eclat  of  any  kind  as  from  dulness.  They 
were  cheerful  and  highly  pleased,  as  they  shewed  by  their 
attention  and  their  smiles  and  an  occasional  murmur  of  de 
light.  But  at  the  imitations  of  Le  petit  Auriol  there  was  a 
mixture  of  smiles  and  sighs,  a  deeper  breathing  than  common, 
and  such  tones  as  showed  that  the  chords  of  their  hearts  had 
been  touched.  Yet  the  Emperor  had  gone  into  banishment 
more  than  twenty  years  before,  and  most  of  the  spectators 
had  never  seen  him.  It  was  to  be  explained  only  by  the 
supposition  that  the  memory  of  his  person  and  personal  habits 
and  gestures  had  been  kept  alive  by  the  deep  affection  and 
admiration  of  those  who  had  seen  him,  and  were  thus  known 
familiarly  to,  those  who  had  not  seen  him.  So  it  now  is  with 
Washington  and  the  people  of  our  days.  I  do  not  mean  by 
this  to  compare  Washington  and  Buonaparte ;  though  unlike 
as  they  were,  I  have  no  doubt  that  there  was  something  in 
Buonaparte  that  touched  the  French  people,  and  especially 
the  people  of  Paris,  as  nearly  and  intimately  as  anything  in 
Washington  has  touched  us.  More  so.  Much  more  so.  Of 
one  thing  I  am  certain,  that,  despot  as  he  was,  the  weight  of 
his  sceptre  was  not  felt  in  Paris;  and  that  either  by  what  he 
did  for  their  pleasure  or  their  ambition,  or  by  what  his  suc 
cessors  have  omitted  to  do  to  these  ends,  there  is  in  the  now 
living  and  moving  mass  in  that  city  more  affection,  admira 
tion,  and  enthusiasm  for  him  than  for  any  other  man  or 
name.- .  .  . 

'  The  period  of  my  first  visit  was  marked  by  great  solici 
tude  among  the  friends  of  the  King  for  the  safety  of  his 
person,  attempt  upon  attempt,  of  the  most  daring  kind, 

173 


HORACE    BINNEY  [Mv.  56 

having  been  made  in  the  course  of  that  year.  The  King 
himself  yielded  to  it,  though  it  was  said  he  did  not  partake 
of  it.  The  daily  talk  was  of  conspiracies  against  him.  He 
consequently  did  not  at  this  time  appear  in  public,  nor  were 
private  individuals  presented  to  him.  The  opening  of  the 
splendid  arch,  which  had  been  erected  at  the  Barriere  de 
1'Etoile,  was  appointed  to  take  place  at  the  approaching  cele 
bration  of  the  trois  jours,  and  a  great  military  display  was 
intended  to  accompany  the  spectacle ;  but  there  were  so  many 
threads  of  conspiracy  in  the  hands  of  the  police,  it  was  said, 
as  made  it  inexpedient  for  the  King  to  appear  at  the  celebra 
tion,  and  it  therefore  did  not  take  place  in  the  manner  in 
tended.  We  had  no  disposition  to  be  in  Paris  while  the  Rue 
de  Rivoli  perhaps  should  be  unpaved  for  the  purposes  of 
another  insurrection,  and  accordingly  made  our  arrangements 
to  depart  upon  our  tour  beforehand." 

From  Paris  Mr.  Binney  went  by  Belgium,  but  recently 
established  as  a  separate  kingdom,  Holland,  still  armed  and 
only  prevented  by  the  disapproval  of  the  Powers  from  re 
newing  hostilities,  the  Rhine,  and  the  Black  Forest  to  Swit 
zerland,  whence  he  entered  Italy  by  the  Simplon  Pass.  In 
a  letter  to  his  son,  ten  years  before,  he  had  confessed  with 
regret  to  "  the  want  of  a  very  keen  relish  for  mere  nature," 
but  if  this  self-criticism  was  justified,  what  he  then  lacked 
was  rather  the  development  of  the  appreciative  faculty  than 
the  faculty  itself.  Certainly  the  journal  of  this  tour  does  not 
show  any  lack  of  appreciation  of  natural  scenery.  Thus  of 
an  evening  at  Thun  he  wrote:  "  My  chamber  in  the  hotel 
looked  out  on  one  side  from  the  southwest  to  the  southeast, 
but  I  did  not  perceive  the  treasure  it  opened  to  me  until  I 
had  extinguished  my  candle  and  got  into  bed.  A  bright  moon 
was  then  shining,  and  directly  in  front  of  me  lay  the  Bliim- 
lisalp,  its  broad  summit  spread  like  an  inclined  plane  before 

174 


1836]  SWITZERLAND 

me,  glittering  with  its  eternal  snows  under  the  moon.  I 
sprang  from  my  bed  to  the  window  to  take  in  better  this 
splendid  scene,  and  for  an  hour  or  more  I  kept  between  the 
window  and  the  bed,  unable  to  leave  the  view  for  more  than 
five  minutes  at  a  time." 

Of  the  view  from  the  terrace  at  Bern  he  wrote :  "  I  could 
not  cast  my  eyes  to  the  Aar,  follow  it  until  it  was  lost  under 
its  high  shores,  and  then  rise  up  to  the  Bliimlisalp  and  the 
Jungf  rau  and  the  brother  peaks,  without  sighing  that  my  lot 
debarred  me  a  daily  walk  over  this  same  terrace." 

Of  the  view  at  Arona  he  wrote,  after  mentioning  the 
colossal  statue  of  San  Carlo  Borromeo :  "  I  did  not  cease  to 
think  of  [the  statue]  as  a  much  poorer  shew  than  a  mammoth 
cheese  or  a  big  pumpkin  until  I  looked  across  the  lake  to 
Augera  from  my  bedchamber  window  at  Arona,  and  beheld 
under  a  bright  moon  such  a  scene  as  drove  from  my  mind 
all  recollection  of  the  absurdities  of  man.  A  high  promon 
tory  shoots  out  into  the  lake  from  Augera,  bearing  on  its 
summit  the  ruins  of  an  ancient  castle,  with  which  the  moon 
worked  witchcraft." 

In  Switzerland  the  political  institutions,  wherein  aris 
tocracy  was  more  intermingled  with  democracy  than  is  now 
the  case,  were  an  additional  subject  of  interest,  and  it  is 
characteristic  that  Mr.  Binney's  journal  contains  a  detailed 
statement  of  the  constitution  of  the  Confederation,  and  of 
3very  canton  which  he  visited.  On  one  occasion  he  was  able 
;o  learn  something  of  the  way  in  which  public  opinion  made 
tself  felt. 

"  As  we  approached  the  city  of  Zurich,  we  met  a  number 
)f  long,  low  wagons,  filled  with  men,  returning  to  the  coun- 
ry.  In  one  or  more  of  them  they  were  singing  a  hymn  or 
>salm,  not  vociferously,  but  in  the  ordinary  tone  of  church 
tiusic.  The  men  were  well  clad,  of  apparently  good  frames 

175 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Bx.  56 

and  health,  but  none  of  them,  I  think,  of  more  than  the  aver 
age  height.  Some  of  them  had  the  leaves  of  the  fir  or  pine 
in  their  hats  or  button-holes.  They  had  been  at  a  public 
meeting  in  the  city.  When  we  arrived,  the  town  was  full. 
It  was  said  that  twenty  thousand  had  assembled  there  to 
testify  their  opposition  to  a  demand  the  French  minister  had 
made  upon  the  cantons  to  expel  certain  persons  who  had 
been  plotting  within  their  territories  mischief  to  the  Orleans 
dynasty.  Young  Napoleon,  the  nephew,  was  the  pivot  of 
these  conspirators.  The  Ziirichers  had  a  regular  town-meet 
ing,  adopted  resolutions,  made  speeches,  fired  a  few  big  guns, 
and  retired  quietly  home.  It  was  so  truly  American  that  I 
felt  as  if  I  had  got  there  too.  It  was  the  first  time  on  the 
Continent  that  I  recognized  the  existence  of  the  people." 

The  journey  to  Milan  was  made  in  company  with  the 
family  of  Mr.  George  Ticknor,  an  old  acquaintance  of  Mr. 
Binney's.  After  a  trip  to  Venice  and  the  Lombard  cities,  he 
rejoined  Mr.  Ticknor  at  Milan,  and  the  two  parties  set  out 
together  for  Florence,  or  rather  for  the  Papal  quarantine 
station  at  Castel  Franco,  a  stay  in  which  was  a  prerequisite 
to  going  farther  south,  as  the  cholera  had  been  severe  in 
North  Italy,  and  the  dread  of  it  still  continued.  The  quaran 
tine  system,  however,  seemed  intended  as  much  to  squeeze 
money  out  of  travellers  as  to  exclude  the  disease,  and,  to  Mr. 
Binney's  mind,  had  no  sanitary  value  whatever.  His  journal 
describes  it  with  some  detail. 

"Wednesday,  19  Oct.  [1836.]  The  first  post  after 
leaving  Parma  for  Bologna  is  Sant'  Ilario,  a  short  distance 
within  the  territory  of  Modena ;  and  before  crossing  the  line 
it  was  necessary  to  submit  to  divers  sanitary  ceremonies  oi 
a  most  edifying  kind.  I  will  therefore  endeavour  to  describ* 
them. 

"  At  the  boundary  line  our  carriages  were  stopt,  the  post 

176 


1836]  ITALIAN    QUARANTINE 

horses  were  taken  off,  and  the  postilions  rode  soberly  back 
to  Parma,  leaving  us  in  the  road.  No  other  horses  were  in 
presence  or  in  sight,  nor  could  we  see  where  they  were  to 
come  from.  As  we  were  still,  however,  in  Parma,  I  thought 
I  might  alight  and  look  around  until  further  orders.  Just 
by  the  line  were  a  number  of  persons  employed  in  drawing 
off  hogsheads  of  new  wine  or  must  on  the  Modena  side,  and 
putting  it  into  hogsheads  on  the  Parma  side.  The  hogsheads 
from  Parma  were,  I  presume,  not  permitted  to  enter  Modena, 
and  the  wine  would  only  come  out  in  buckets.  My  servant 
brought  me  a  cup  of  the  must,  which  was  good,  and  which  is 
reputed  to  be  wholesome.  I  did  not  like  it,  however,  as  well 
as  new  cider,  and  felt  no  disposition  to  try  a  new  article 
extensively,  which  might  play  a  dangerous  and  very  critical 
trick  in  cholera  times. 

"  A  signal  was  soon  given  for  returning  to  the  carriage, 
and  then  several  persons  approached,  who  held  communica 
tion  with  us  at  a  most  respectful  distance  in  the  road.  Our 
passports  were  thrown  to  them,  they  were  taken  up  by  tongs, 
placed  in  a  smoking  box,  and  most  villanously  fumigated. 
We  perceived  that  after  being  smoked  for  ten  minutes  the 
principal  functionary  opened  the  papers  with  the  tips  of  his 
fingers,  held  his  nose  well  off  while  he  read,  and  kept  himself 
cautiously  to  windward.  Great  solemnity  was  observed,  and 
everything  like  a  horse  laugh  kept  under  by  these  people,  at 
least  until  we  should  be  gone.  Then  no  doubt  they  took  their 
satisfaction. 

"  After  reading,  and  writing  a  vise,  a  bill  of  the  expenses 
was  drawn  up  and  thrown  into  the  road  for  our  couriers  to 
pick  up  and  pay,  and  when  they  signified  that  they  were 
ready,  a  tin  cup  containing  some  disinfecting  liquor  was  held 
)ut  to  them  at  the  end  of  a  ten-foot  pole,  and  the  money  was 
Iropt  in. 

12  177 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JE-T.  56 

"  Now  appeared  our  post-horses  approaching  from  Sant* 
Ilario,  and  with  them  a  carriage  and  two  horses,  out  of  which, 
within  the  Modena  jurisdiction,  stept  two  good-looking  fel 
lows  in  uniform,  with  an  epaulette  on  each,  and  rather  a 
smiling  face,  but  armed  with  a  carbine  each,  and  I  know  not 
what  else,  and  there  they  remained  for  the  present. 

"  Our  passports  were  thrown  into  the  road  for  the 
couriers  to  take  up,  and  our  carriages  were  then  pushed  by 
some  Parmesan  man-power  until  the  poles  of  the  carriages 
were  fairly  in  Modena,  without  any  entrance  by  the  pro 
pelling  force.  Horses  were  then  put  to,  and  we  passed 
slowly,  until  we  had  got  beyond  the  officers  and  their  car 
riage,  when  a  halt  was  ordered.  The  carbineers  got  into  their 
carriage,  and  drew  up  in  our  rear,  and  after  a  communica 
tion  that  their  orders  were  to  shoot  us  if  we  attempted  to  leave 
the  carriage,  we  all  went  ahead. 

"  Such  are  the  Duke  of  Modena's  initiatory  precautions 
against  the  cholera,  a  disease  that  everybody  on  earth  but  the 
Duke  knows  to  hold  quarantine  in  contempt,  that  springs  up 
into  the  air  from  the  places  it  attacks,  and  then  down  again 
into  some  other  place  without  reason  or  rhyme,  and  then  up 
again  before  its  victims  can  be  counted,  as  if  it  had  been  a 
vulture  that  had  pounced  upon  his  prey  and  was  off  before 
he  could  be  seen. 

"  The  Duke,  however,  did  not  stop  here.  We  were  not 
permitted  to  pass  through  Reggio,  but  stopt  on  the  outside 
till  horses  were  brought  to  us ;  and  although  there  were  fifty 
persons  of  the  lower  order  in  the  neighbourhood  of  our  car 
riage,  there  was  not  one  who  did  not  keep  carefully  to  wind 
ward.  Some  of  them  were  beggars,  squalid  and  in  rags,  and 
execrably  dirty,  and  you  may  imagine  that  their  apprehension 
did  not  keep  them  farther  off,  as  we  had  not  the  choice  of 
getting  to  windward  of  them. 

178 


1836]  ITALIAN    QUARANTINE 

"  Modena  we  passed  through  as  a  pauper  is  passed 
through  a  township  where  he  has  no  settlement.  There  was 
no  way  outside  the  walls,  perhaps.  I  think  our  post-horses 
were  changed  within  the  town,  but  we  did  not  leave  the  car 
riage,  and  the  carbines  were  close  behind  us.  I  could  see 
smiles,  however,  and  tittering.  It  was  a  money-making  affair 
under  pretexts,  and  without  any  real  apprehension  or  cause 
for  it. 

"  At  two  posts  from  Modena  we  crossed  the  Panaro,  a 
small  river,  on  a  good  bridge,  the  long  pole  and  tin  cup  having 
been  held  up  to  the  couriers  for  the  bill;  and  in  a  quarter  of 
an  hour  more  we  were  whisked  to  the  left  into  a  building  look 
ing  very  much  like  a  penitentiary.  Gates  without  and  gates 
within  were  unbarred  and  barred  again  to  let  us  into  the 
interior  and  to  keep  us  there,  tarn  to  take  our  bodies,  quam  to 
keep  them,  until  it  was  known  whether  we  had  the  cholera  or 
were  going  to  have  it. 

"  Castel  Franco  is  on  the  borders  of  the  Bolognese  terri 
tory,  and  may  have  been  a  fortress, — I  mean  the  place  we 
inhabited.  The  town  itself  is  inconsiderable.  Three  sides  of 
a  square,  of  probably  eight  acres,  built  up  with  structures  that 
might  have  served  for  granaries  or  barracks,  and  the  fourth 
side  with  a  lofty  stone  wall,  made  our  inclosure.  The  interior 
was  an  ample  grass  lawn,  where  we  could  walk  in  dry  weather, 
and  the  buildings  or  some  of  them  had  covered  arcades,  where 
we  could  walk  when  the  weather  was  bad.  Our  dormitory  was 
a  fire-proof,  perhaps  a  bomb-proof,  stone  building,  for  the 
most  part,  but  not  in  our  quarter,  having  iron  bars  like  a 
prison  at  the  windows.  The  ceilings  were  arched,  the  floors 
stone  or  brick,  the  walls  extremely  massive.  The  apprehen 
sion  of  fire  was  reduced  to  its  minimum. 

'  The  word  '  quarantine'  did  not  appear  in  any  of  the 
instructions  that  were  given  us  for  our  government.  The 

179 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  56 

thing  was  called  contumacia,  and  we  were  described  as  con- 
tumacij  as  if  we  had  come  there  in  contempt  of  court,  and 
were  criminals.  The  punishment  for  our  contempt,  except 
the  mere  confinement,  was  not  severe.  Our  party  had  sepa 
rate  apartments  assigned  to  us,  for  sleeping  and  for  eating. 
We  had  also  servants  allotted  to  us  to  make  our  beds,  sweep 
our  rooms,  and  serve  our  meals;  and  these  were  as  much 
contumaci  as  ourselves.  They  came  in  with  us,  and  might 
go  out  with  us,  and  were  under  all  the  restraints  that  we 
were. 

*  The  principal  servant,  named  Malaguti,  a  young  man 
of  twenty-five,  was  a  being  that  it  would  be  impossible  to 
find  from  Passamaquoddy  to  Cape  Florida.  He  spoke 
Latin,  was,  he  said,  of  respectable  parentage,  able-bodied, 
and  rather  good-looking,  civil  and  obliging,  and  the  most 
humble,  submissive,  timid  creature  that  I  can  conceive  of. 
His  bringing  up  had  crushed  him.  He  did  not  feel  himself 
to  be  of  the  same  race  with  myself;  he  did  not  certainly  act 
as  if  he  so  felt  himself ;  and  he  complained  to  me  that  he  was 
without  capacity  to  do  anything  but  to  serve  in  that  humble 
way.  It  was  only  by  this  complaint  that  I  perceived  that  his 
education  had  not  quite  eradicated  the  feeling  of  manhood 
in  him.  We  all  liked  Malaguti.  We  never  called  his  name 
that  we  did  not  hear  his  answer  immediately.  To  me  it  was, 
'  Si,  Eccellenza/  to  the  young  ladies, f  Si,  Principessa/  and 
he  was  instantly  before  us.  This  was  always  his  style  of 
address  or  response.  We  were  quite  sorry  to  part  with  him; 
and  when  we  departed,  on  my  giving  him  a  larger  fee  than 
he  expected,  he  wept  like  a  child,  and,  begging  my  pardon 
for  the  liberty,  seized  my  hand  and  covered  it  with  kisses. 
It  would  not  be  possible  to  find,  in  all  our  country,  nor 
perhaps  out  of  Italy,  a  being  so  unmanned. 

"  Between  the  line  of  buildings  that  we  occupied  and  the 

180 


1836]  ITALIAN    QUARANTINE 

inner  gate  there  was  an  open  space  of  thirty  feet;  and  be 
tween  the  inner  and  outer  gate  were  buildings  in  which  the 
quarantine  officers  lived,  and  where  our  meals  were  prepared. 
At  a  small  window  in  one  of  these  buildings  our  servants 
received  our  meals,  and  held  communication  for  us  with  the 
outer  world ;  for  they  were  obliging  in  all  the  departments, 
and  would  send  anywhere  for  anything  we  wanted.  Truffles 
came  to  us  from  Bologna,  and  game,  or  whatever  we  asked; 
but  our  very  crockery  was  in  contumacia.  The  servants 
washed  it,  for  aught  I  know  smoked  it,  and  only  in  the 
purified  state  was  it  returned  to  the  kitchen  through  the  hole 
in  the  wall. 

"  All  persons  who  came  in  on  the  same  day  were  at 
liberty  to  mess  together,  a  privilege  we  did  not  extend  beyond 
our  own  party.  All  such  might  shake  hands  together,  but 
persons  coming  in  on  different  days  were  restricted  in  their 
intercourse.  If  contact  of  hands  took  place  between  them, 
the  party  who  had  been  longest  in  quarantine  took  date  with 
the  person  who  had  been  there  the  shortest  time,  and  had  so 
much  more  time  to  suffer.  Such  a  one  was  properly  in 
contumacia. 

'*  We  were  not  practically  restrained  in  conversation 
without  contact,  but  across  the  lawn  I  have  spoken  of,  in  the 
centre  of  the  square,  were  drawn  lines,  or  ropes,  about  three 
feet  from  the  ground,  running  at  intervals  of  about  six  feet 
apart  from  post  to  post,  over  the  whole  lawn.  It  was  so 
arranged  that  persons  coming  in  on  different  days  might 
walk  and  have  intercourse  in  these  alleys,  separated  by  the 
ropes.  But  we  did  not  much  attend  to  this,  always  avoiding, 
however,  the  shaking  of  hands  in  cases  not  permitted. 

"  During  the  confinement  the  weather  was  in  general 
excellent.  The  many  Americans,  Russians,  and  one  or  two 
Englishmen  made  pleasant  society;  and  with  reading, 

181 


HORACE    BINNEY  [Mv.  56-57 

writing,  and  cyphering,  that  is,  doing  nothing,  we  got  along 
very  comfortably.  On  the  morning  of  the  1st  November, 
All  Saints,  the  doors  were  opened  to  us,  and  we  travelled 
with  a  clean  bill  of  health  to  Bologna." 

To-day  the  only  danger  to  travellers  in  Italy  seems  to 
be  that  of  having  their  baggage  opened  in  transit  and  the 
contents  stolen,  but  at  the  time  of  Mr.  Binney's  trip  there 
were  reports,  at  least,  of  more  serious  danger. 

"  About  half  a  mile  from  our  hotel  [in  the  Apennines, 
between  Bologna  and  Florence]  the  courier  observed  from 
the  bright  light  in  the  windows  that  the  host  had  received  his 
letter  of  advice,  and  was  prepared  for  us;  and  from  the  time 
of  this  discovery  the  forest-trees  looked  larger  and  the  Ap 
ennines  less  savage,  and  in  a  few  minutes  we  were  by  the 
side  of  roaring  fires  and  at  a  good  supper-table,  for  which 
a  cold  and  hard  day's  ride  had  prepared  us.  Our  host  was 
all  civility,  and  our  bedrooms  and  beds  most  comfortable. 
The  house  had  always  been  famous  for  its  accommodations, 
very  much  beyond  what  a  traveller  requires  to  satisfy  him 
after  a  day's  hard  travel  in  the  mountains;  but  it  had  also 
been  famous  for  giving  shelter  to  robbers,  who  robbed  and 
murdered  the  travellers  soon  after  leaving  their  hospitable 
host.  The  father  of  our  landlord  had  been  executed  for  such 
peccadilloes,  but  his  son  was  not  thought  to  have  forgotten 
the  lesson.  We  did  not  feel  ourselves  entirely  safe,  however, 
the  next  day  until  we  had  crossed  the  summit  and  descended 
to  Caf  aggiolo.  .  .  . 

"  After  passing  through  Spoleto  [some  weeks  later],  we 
went  through  a  narrow  pass  in  the  Apennines,  dark,  savage, 
and  with  as  bad  a  reputation  as  any  part  of  the  country 
between  Florence  and  Rome.  As  we  were  going  up  the  hill 
near  the  top  of  the  pass,  I  lagged  behind  the  carriage,  having 
preferred  walking,  but  my  servant  immediately  came  to  me 

182 


1836-37]  ITALY 

and  begged  me  to  keep  nearer  the  carriage.  He  said  he 
would  explain  the  reason  another  time,  but  it  was  unneces 
sary.  .  .  .  When  we  were  down  we  found  ourselves  at  the 
close  of  day  in  a  black-looking  village,  with  knots  of  ill- 
looking  idlers  about  the  post-house,  talking  of  a  robbery  that 
had  just  been  committed,  and  they  invited  us  to  stay  the 
night.  I  was  none  the  more  willing  to  stop  for  such  a  story, 
for  if  there  had  been  or  was  to  be  a  robbery,  I  thought 
Strettura  must  be  the  place.  We  accordingly  pressed  on, 
observing  the  precaution  not  to  light  our  lamps,  until  we  got 
out  of  the  infected  district,  and  in  an  hour  or  so  reached 
Terni  in  good  safety.  On  leaving  it  next  morning,  we  had 
the  pleasure  of  seeing  two  '  gentlemen  of  the  road'  sitting 
handcuffed  and  pinioned  in  a  cart,  three  or  four  officers 
alongside  them,  and  horsemen  armed  with  carbines  imme 
diately  behind.  By  this  retinue,  they  must  have  been  des 
perate  fellows." 

At  Rome  Mr.  Binney's  interest  in  sculpture  led  him  to 
make  the  acquaintance  of  Thorwaldsen. 

"January  11,  1837.  .  .  .  Thorwaldsen's  studio  has  the 
models  of  his  Christ  and  Apostles,  the  marbles  of  which  were 
sent  to  Copenhagen.  I  confess  they  were  above  me.  The 
style  was  too  severe,  and  while  it  was  evident  in  these,  it  was 
more  so  in  his  Graces  and  Venus.  There  were  also  among 
the  plaster  models  those  of  his  head  of  Napoleon,  of  Byron, 
and  of  Scott,  and  I  liked  none  of  them.  The  marble  of  his 
bas  reliefs  of  the  Triumph  of  Alexander,  which  have  been 
executed  in  stucco  in  the  Pontifical  Palace  on  the  Quirinal, 
was  more  to  my  taste.  I  was,  on  the  whole,  grievously  disap 
pointed,  and  it  was  of  that  painful  kind  which  springs  not 
from  the  def ectiveness  of  the  work,  but  of  the  observer,  for 
Thorwaldsen's  reputation  is  perfectly  established.  It  was 
impossible  to  find  fault  with  any  of  his  works  as  wanting 

183 


HORACE    BINNEY  [Mv.  57 

truth,  or  proportion,  or  classicality.  They  had  all  this,  but 
they  all  had  the  stern  and  severe  character  that  had  been 
transformed  from  the  living  countenance  of  Washington, 
and  perhaps  from  the  old  Greek  philosophers,  into  their  busts 
and  statues.  Byron  had  no  right  to  look  so,  nor  Scott,  nor 
even  Buonaparte,  still  less  Venus  and  the  Graces.  .  .  . 

"  Friday,  13  January.  ...  I  left  Thorwaldsen's  studio 
with  so  unpleasant  an  impression  of  his  works  that  I  was 
determined  to  try  the  effect  of  an  introduction  to  him,  to  see 
if  an  hour's  conversation  with  him  would  have  any  effect  of 
softening  them  to  me,  of  bringing  them  down  to  actual  life, 
of  getting  some  sympathy  for  me,  which  they  seemed  to 
want.  Accordingly,  after  passing  an  hour  this  morning  in 
the  studio  of  Tadolini,  a  Bolognese  sculptor,  where  the  usual 
works  of  Venuses  and  Graces  were  going  on,  and  with  so 
little  about  them  to  take  hold  of  that  I  brought  nothing 
away,  a  friend  took  me  to  Thorwaldsen's  residence  by  ap 
pointment,  and  introduced  me  to  him.  My  introducer  then 
left  me,  and  I  passed  two  hours  with  the  agreeable  old  man, 
but  upon  reflection  what  an  interview  it  was ! 

'  The  apartments  and  the  house  in  which  Thorwaldsen 
lives  are  near  the  Piazza  Barberini,  directly  north  of  the 
Quirinal,  and  like  his  studio,  near  the  same  place,  are  the 
roughest  things  possible.  The  three  or  four  rooms  which 
he  seemed  to  occupy  had  little  or  no  furniture,  being  crowded 
with  paintings  on  the  walls,  pieces  of  sculpture  in  various 
parts,  and  a  figure  as  large  as  life  which  he  was  employed  in 
modelling,  a  cloth  being  tied  round  the  head  and  body,  so 
that  I  could  not  tell  what  it  was. 

"  In  a  corner  of  one  of  the  smallest  of  the  rooms  was  his 
bed,  a  mattress,  or  a  cot -bedstead  perhaps,  made  for  the  day, 
but  by  no  means  remarkable  for  the  proprete  of  the  coverlet 
or  of  the  linen.  It  may  be  recollected  that  it  was  near  the 

184 


1837]  THORWALDSEN 

close  of  the  week,  and  a  little  in  advance  of  '  clean  sheet 
day.'  But  directly  at  the  head  of  the  bed  was  a  cartoon 
of  the  Virgin  and  Child  by  Raphael,  the  last  thing  that  his 
eye  rested  on  as  he  retired  to  rest,  and  the  first  thing  that  it 
beheld  in  the  morning,  and  I  dare  say  he  thinks  little  of  the 
colour  of  the  pillow  that  is  under  it. 

"  The  artist  has  often  been  described,  I  suppose,  but  I 
must  describe  him  for  himself.  His  toilet  was  not  made, 
and  I  am  not  certain  that  it  ever  is.  His  outward  covering 
was  an  old  great-coat,  reaching  nearly  to  the  ankles,  and  tied 
round  the  waist  with  a  bit  of  rope.  The  colour  of  the  robe 
de  chambre,  for  I  dare  say  it  was  known  by  that  name,  was 
originally,  perhaps,  gray,  material  known  among  us  as  lamb 
skin,  now  whitened  with  marble-dust  and  plaster,  and  be 
speaking  its  affinity  to  a  dealer  in  flour  of  some  kind. 

"  The  artist's  feet  were,  I  think,  without  stockings,  and 
were  thrust  into  a  pair  of  those  pantoufles  that  are  some 
times  given  to  visitors  to  move  over  the  polished  floors  of 
palaces.  There  was  no  danger,  however,  of  slipping  on 
Thorwaldsen's  floors,  had  the  polish  been  given  to  my  own 
soles.  There  had  been  neither  water  nor  rubber  upon  them 
within  the  memory  of  man! 

"  On  the  old  man's  head  was  a  cap  of  some  kind,  cotton 
or  woollen,  without  shape,  lying  upon  the  head  rather  than 
covering  it,  and  underneath  on  all  sides  were  straggling  locks 
Df  hair,  of  a  dirty  gray,  having  nothing  soft  or  silky  or 
venerable  in  them,  but  suited  very  well  to  his  face,  which 
vas  square  rather  than  round,  chiselled  by  nature,  rather 
han  moulded  or  modelled,  pale  but  not  sickly,  and  lighted 
ip  by  a  pair  of  light-blue  eyes,  which  belonged  exactly  to 
he  colour  of  the  hair  and  complexion.  The  expression  was 
:inder  and  more  benevolent  than  I  should  have  looked  for 
n  that  square  and  rather  severe  countenance. 

185 


HORACE    BINNEY  [MT.  57 

"  He  received  me  very  kindly,  with  the  modesty  of  one 
who  had  never  known  what  flattery  was,  and,  carrying  me 
about  his  rooms  to  shew  me  what  was  in  them,  began  con 
versation  with  me  in  French.  Yes,  French  it  was,  more 
French  certainly  than  anything  else  under  the  sun,  yet  such 
French  as  never  before  was  spoken,  and,  unless  they  make 
a  plaster  model  of  it,  will  never  be  spoken  hereafter.  He 
split  it  off  in  blocks,  but  it  was  not  blocks  of  Carrara,  nor  of 
any  other  homogeneous  stone,  but  real  breccia,  pudding 
stone, — French,  Danish,  and  Italian,  all  mixed  together, 
sometimes  most  of  one  and  sometimes  most  of  the  others. 
When  it  was  most  French  or  Italian  I  guessed  it  pretty  well, 
when  it  was  most  Danish  I  was  thrown  out  completely,  and 
sometimes  did  not  get  the  scent  again  for  three  or  four  min 
utes.  He  was  very  communicative,  and  the  only  use  of  my 
French  was  either  to  shew  (sometimes  against  conscience) 
that  I  understood  him,  or  to  edge  him  on  when  he  seemed  to 
be  coming  to  an  end. 

"  Thorwaldsen  is  reputed  to  be  rich,  and  therefore  works 
only  at  pleasure.  He  has  one  child,  a  daughter  married  in 
Rome,  and  this,  it  is  said,  is  his  only  bond  to  Rome.  If  he 
ever  had  a  wife,  this  daughter  is  not  her  child.  He  told  me 
that  he  wished  to  live  to  finish  a  work  upon  which  he  was 
engaged,  a  history  of  the  progress  of  the  arts,  in  has  relief, 
upon  which  he  employs  his  leisure.  It  begins  with  Apollo 
and  Pegasus, — high  enough  up,  certainly, — and  how  far  he 
has  brought  it  down  he  did  not  say.  The  praise  of  excelling 
Canova  or  any  other  modern  artist  in  has  relief  is,  I  believe 
not  denied  to  him  by  any  one.  His  superiority  in  statuary  is 
not  so  generally  conceded.  His  heart,  I  thought,  was  not  ir 
Rome.  He  seemed  sensible  of  the  kindness  and  homage  thai 
had  been  shewn  him  there,  but  he  spoke  of  returning  t( 
Copenhagen  with  enthusiasm.  He  had  made  his  country  <' 

186 


1837]  THORWALDSEN 

part  of  himself,  and  himself  a  part  of  his  country,  and  it 
was  not  wonderful  that  he  should  want  to  return. 

"  He  pointed  out  to  me  the  merits  of  several  paintings 
on  his  walls,  almost  all  quite  modern,  most  of  them  painted 
and  presented  to  him  by  his  friends,  and  among  the  rest  the 
best  portrait  of  him  I  have  seen,  by  Horace  Vernet.  I  mean 
the  best  resemblance.2  I  have  never  seen  a  French  portrait 
that  pleased  me  as  a  painting.  He  praised  some  of  them 
lavishly. 

"  I  thought  I  would  try  him  in  his  own  art,  and  said, 
*  Sculpture  has  confessedly  made  great  progress  during  the 
last  half -century.  We  seem  to  be  getting  up  to  the  eminence 
on  which  the  Greek  sculptors  stood.  But  is  it  so  with  paint 
ings?  And  how  do  we  account  for  its  not  being  so,  with  the 
hundred-fold  more  beautiful  works  in  painting  than  in 
sculpture  to  instruct  and  inspire  the  painter?  We  are  but 
three  centuries  from  the  finest  paintings  the  world  has  ever 
seen,  and  have  myriads  of  these  master-pieces  around  us  in 
Rome.  Why  are  they  not  imitated?' 

'  Oh,'  said  he,  *  painting  is  doing  well.  Time  does  a 
great  deal.  It  softens  colours  and  tints  so  admirably. 
When  these  shall  have  had  that  advantage  it  will  be  more 
just  to  make  the  comparison.'  He  warded  off  very  adroitly 
the  compliment  I  had  intended  for  himself,  but  he  did  not 
satisfy  me. 

"  He  then  paid  me  in  my  own  coin.  Among  the  modern 
paintings  were  two  or  three  sea  and  water  pieces,  and  one, 
[  think,  of  the  Bay  of  Naples,  with  several  ships  in  motion, 
—English,  Danish,  American.  Running  his  finger  over  it, 
le  said,  '  Who  places  a  ship  on  the  water  like  your  country- 

2  One  of  the  best  resemblances  of  Thorwaldsen  may  be  seen  in  a  head  of 
x>renzo  de'  Medici,  at  the  front  of  the  American  edition  of  Roscoe's  life  of  him. 
Note  to  the  MS.) 

187 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^T.  56-57 


men?'  He  passed  with  the  point  of  his  finger  over  the  out 
line  of  one  of  those  clippers,  or  flying  schooners,  which  seem 
to  be  distinctive  of  American  taste  and  skill  in  ship  -build 
ing.  '  It  has  life,'  he  said.  '  It  does  not  sleep  even  when  it 
is  at  anchor;  or  if  it  does,  it  is  with  one  eye  open.'  I  had 
nothing  to  reply  but  a  smile  and  a  bow. 

"  I  have  rarely  passed  a  couple  of  hours  more  delight 
fully.  He  was  spirited  and  bright,  but  kind,  familiar,  and 
simple.  The  character  of  the  artist  has  in  some  degree 
affected  the  impression  of  his  works  upon  me;  but  still  I 
cannot  think  that  he  is  equal  to  Canova,  remote  as  the  works 
of  Canova  are  from  those  divine  remains  of  the  Greeks  which 
the  Gallery  at  Florence,  and  both  the  Vatican  and  Capitol  in 
Rome  give  out  so  abundantly." 

Another  celebrated  man,  though  very  different  from 
Thorwaldsen,  whom  Mr.  Binney  met  in  Rome,  was  Bunsen, 
from  whose  society  he  seems  to  have  derived  much  pleasure. 

"Wednesday,  14  December  [1836].  The  minister  of 
Prussia,  the  Chevalier  Bunsen,  the  secretary  and  successor 
of  Niebuhr,  occupies  a  house  on  the  Capitoline  Hill,  and  is 
perhaps  a  better  authority  for  the  true  site  of  the  temple  of 
Jupiter  Capitolinus  than  Van  or  Nibby.  He  informed  me 
that  his  house  stands  on  a  part  of  its  very  foundations,  and 
as  I  passed  with  him  this  morning  into  the  garden,  he  pointed 
out  to  me  a  part  of  the  foundation  wall  as  being  the  ipsis- 
simus.  If  so,  the  Aracoeli  has  not  the  honour,  for  the  palazzo 
of  the  minister  is  to  the  northward  of  the  steps,  perhaps  three 
hundred  feet,  and  the  Aracoeli  is  to  the  southward  and  imme 
diately  adjacent.  .  .  . 

"  Mr.  Bunsen  is  not  only  a  Protestant,  but  deeply  at 
tached  to  the  liturgy  of  the  Church  of  England.  He  ap 
peared  to  take  an  interest  in  the  American  Episcopal  Church, 
and  conversed  with  me  much  about  it.  He  had  little  doubt 

188 


1836-37]  ROME 

that  Prussia  would  obtain  the  Episcopate  from  England, 
and  would  introduce  a  liturgy  into  the  Prussian  Protestant 
Churches.  .  .  . 

"  Monday,  26  December.  Being  fresh  from  an  assembly 
of  Pope  and  Cardinals,  I  took  the  liberty  of  asking  M.  — 
his  opinion  of  the  religious  and  literary  character  or  attributes 
of  these  personages.  He  is  a  very  competent  judge,  having 
resided  a  long  time  in  Rome  and,  I  may  say,  among  them, 
as  much  as  a  Protestant  can  do.  He  is  a  man  of  great 
accomplishments  himself,  a  scholar,  a  linguist,  but  withal,  I 
;may  suppose,  an  uncompromising  Protestant,  and  therefore 
possibly  not  impartial,  certainly  not  favourably  inclined.  I 
give  you  the  result  of  his  remarks  this  evening  during  the 
two  hours  I  passed  at  his  residence. 

'  The  state  of  religion  in  Rome  is  the  worst  possible, — 
an  affair  of  priestcraft  and  ceremonies.  The  Pope  ( Gregory 
XVI.)  is  ignorant  and  fanatical.  He  is  thought  to  have  a 
decent  acquaintance  with  Latin,  but  he  cannot  read  a  sentence 
rf  Greek  in  the  New  Testament.  This  seems  scarcely 
credible. 

"  As  a  body  the  Cardinals  are  without  learning.  One  of 
;hem  in  prospect,  Angelo  Mai,  formerly  the  librarian  of  the 
Vatican,  is  now  experiencing  their  bigoted  hatred  of  learn- 
ng,  and  must  sacrifice  his  own  love  for  it  to  get  into  the 
>rder.  He  had  prepared  with  great  care  a  copy  (or  trans- 
ation,  I  forget  which)  of  the  oldest  Greek  manuscript  Bible 
n  the  Vatican,  scrupulously  compared  and  critically  anno- 


8  The  journal  has  this  note:  "I  may  now  write  the  name  of  this  gentleman, 
3  he  has  been  for  some  years  dead.  It  was  M.  Bunsen,  the  Prussian  Minister, 
nd  the  conversation  occurred  in  his  house  on  the  Capitol  Hill,  where,  upon  his 
eneral  invitation,  I  paid  him  a  perfectly  unceremonious  visit  in  the  evening, 
Hind  him  in  his  slippers,  with  Mrs.  Bunsen,  an  English  native,  and  their  many 
lildren  about  them,  sipping  their  tea,  of  which  I  partook,  and  passed  a  most 
:freshing  two  hours,  without  interruption.  July,  1868." 

189 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^T.  56-57 


tated  by  himself  ,  in  eight  volumes  octavo.  It  has  long  been 
ready  for  publication,  and  he  has  been  waiting  as  long  for 
permission  to  print  it.  The  permission  does  not  come.  The 
work  is  not  thought  to  be  necessary.  They  have  the  Vulgate! 
If  Mai's  work  is  not  already  burnt,  which  is  probable,  it  will 
be.  M.  [Bunsen]  has  heard  that  it  was  about  to  be.  There 
was  an  era  when  better  things  were  looked  for.  It  was  when 
the  Papacy  was  expected  to  fall  to  Cardinal  Consalvi.  It 
was  promised,  and  it  was  treacherously  given  to  another.  The 
present  Pope  was  expected  by  nobody,  and  wished  by  nobody 
but  as  a  pis  aller.  He  was  chosen  for  spite. 

"  This  account  may  appear  improbable  in  an  age  when, 
though  learning  is  not  so  common  as  it  was,  it  is  shameful 
to  be  without  it,  even  in  an  academical  body,  and  more  so  in 
a  conclave  of  Cardinals.  As  nothing  was  said  against  the 
personal  morality  of  the  Cardinals,  we  may  suppose  them 
not  to  be  very  vulnerable.  The  stories  in  regard  to  the  Pope 
are  supremely  absurd.  As  to  their  religion,  there  has  been 
no  period  when  perhaps  it  has  been  any  better  than  priest 
craft  and  ceremony.  Still,  the  faces  of  more  than  one  indi 
cated  an  abstemious,  ascetic  life,  and  it  is  difficult  to  assign 
a  motive  for  this  in  such  a  station  except  religious  zeal  and 
sincerity,  or  an  ardent  love  of  letters.  The  remarks  do  not, 
however,  say  the  contrary  of  this.  They  relate  to  the  body 
and  its  general  character.  Exceptions  in  particular  cases 
are  not  inconsistent  with  general  ignorance,  irreligion,  or 
formality. 

"  The  impression  of  M.  [Bunsen]  was  that  the  indul 
gence  of  Protestants  in  public  worship  was  regretted  b} 
the  Pontifical  government,  and  would  be  withdrawn  on  the 
slightest  pretext.  To  reconcile  the  tradesmen  and  others  who 
live  upon  the  expenditure  of  Protestant  strangers,  it  cannol 
be  conveniently  withdrawn  without  some  pretext.  The  gov 

190 


1836-37]  ROME 

ernment  of  Rome  is  a  pure  despotism,  but  the  Pope  has 
heard,  no  doubt,  of  the  last  hair.  The  camel's  back  has  been 
broken  often  enough  at  Rome  to  kill  him  forever,  but 
Romanism  is  the  miracle  that  always  brings  him  back  to  life 
again." 

The  carnival  season  of  1837  gave  an  illustration  of  the 
feeling  of  the  citizens  towards  their  government.  The 
journal  alludes  to  this,  as  follows: 

"  Saturday,  28  January.     This  is  the  first  day  of  the 

carnival,  and  a  miserable  beginning  it  is.    The  cholera  is  at 

Naples,  has  been  recently  at  Ancona,  as  well  as  in  all  parts 

iOf  Lombardy,  and  the  Pope  is  certain  that  the  Virgin  alone 

has  protected  the  city  of  the  seven  hills.    Prayers  have  been 

addressed  to  her  daily  for  the  last  two  months  to  defend 

Rome  from  the  cholera,  and  Rome  has  escaped.    The  Pope 

has  therefore  ordered  a  proclamation,  requiring  all  good 

Catholics  to  forego  the  customary  light  amusements  of  the 

carnival,  and,  in  fine,  prohibiting  them.    There  are  to  be  no 

masks,  no  confetti,  no  moccoletti, — nothing,  in  fine,  but  some 

miserable  horse-races,  which,  being  of  short  duration,  and 

poor  even  while  they  last,  could  have  been  better  dispensed 

vith  than  the  others.    In  substitution,  prayers  to  the  Virgin 

ire  to  fill  up  all  vacant  spaces.    In  consequence  the  Romans 

ook  very  black ;  they  swear  they  will  not  give  a  single  prayer 

nore  to  the  Virgin  than  they  would  have  given  if  they  had 

tad  their  customary  recreations.    Nor  is  it  matter  of  recrea- 

ion  only;  many  of  the  people  derive  material  succour  from 

he  sports  of  the  carnival,  and  they  lay  out  their  little  capital 

^eeks  beforehand  in  the  requisite  purchases.    All  this  must 

e  lost, — not  only  profit,  but  capital  itself;    and  they  look 

ery  black,  their  eyes  flash,  and  all  say  there  will  be  a  great 

lunderstorm.  .  .  . 

'  Tuesday,  7  February.      The  Pontifical  government, 

191 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JEx.  57 

being,  it  said,  greatly  edified  by  the  good  behaviour  of  the 
people,  who  had  borne  the  deprivation  of  the  carnival  very 
well,  at  length  relented  and  permitted  confetti  and  moccoletti 
on  the  last  evening  of  the  Saturnalia. 

'  You  must  remember  that  all  burials  at  Rome  are  by 
torchlight,  and  that  little  tapers  or  moccoletti  are  lighted  on 
the  last  evening  of  the  carnival  as  a  derisory  funeral  cere 
mony,  and  the  sport  of  the  occasion  is  the  attempt  of  every 
one  to  put  out  the  lights  of  everybody  else  and  keep  his  own 
burning.    You  may  imagine  the  merriment  which  a  license  of 
this  kind  may  occasion.    The  confetti  are  sugar-plums  made 
of  plaster  of  Paris,  which  are  thrown  about  in  all  directions 
to  heighten  the  fun.     It  is  a  season  of  good-humour  and 
boisterous  merriment,  throwing  off  all  restraint  and  obser 
vance  of  ceremony.    In  the  evening  we  entered  the  Corso  ir 
our  carriage,  and  our  servant  procured  a  bundle  of  rush 
lights  for  us.     We  had  not  advanced  twenty  yards  before 
our  coachman  Antonio  told  us  that  ...  we  had  better  tak( 
the  ladies  back  to  the  hotel.     All  was  dark,  no  lights  wen 
permitted,  and  where  any  one  was  shewn  from  an  uppe] 
window  violence  was  threatened  unless  it  should  be  instanth 
extinguished.     We  turned  off  suddenly  to  our  hotel.     Al 
other  carriages  were  forced  off.    Numbers  of  men  in  whit< 
hats  by  a  concerted  action  had  done  this,  and  took  possessioi 
of  the   Corso   from   one   end   to   the   other.      The   Pope' 
dragoons,  under  the  apprehension  of  some  outbreak,  cam' 
with  their  cavalry  on  to  the  Corso,  and  the  same  white  hat 
quietly  took  their  horses  by  the  head,  and  led  them  off.    Th 
soldiers  or  their  officers  had  the  prudence  not  to  strike.    The; 
asked  what  all  this  meant.     The  reply  was  that  the  will  o 
the  Holy  Father  should  be  done  as  he  first  ordered.     Th 
carnival  should  not  be  buried  with  moccoletti.     It  was  nc 
dead.    It  had  not  been  alive.    It  was  a  case  of  fausse  couchi 

199 


1837]  ROME 

and  the  ceremony  did  not  belong  to  such  an  event.  With 
the  utmost  gravity  they  persisted,  committing  no  disorder, 
permitting  none,  and  giving  the  Pope  to  understand,  as  I 
suppose,  that  he  must  not  consider  he  was  quit  of  old  scores 
by  his  ridiculous  indulgence  on  the  last  day.  So  the  carnival 
ended  in  true  harmony  with  its  previous  course.  The  Virgin 
did  not  get  an  additional  prayer,  but  whether  the  Pope  and 
his  Cardinals  did  not  get  additional  curses  is  a  different 
matter." 

The  general  impression  which  Rome  left  on  Mr.  Bin- 
ney's  mind,  after  two  months'  residence,  is  best  told  in  his 
own  words:  "  In  reviewing  my  sojourn  in  Rome  after  taking 
leave  of  it  forever,  I  am  struck  with  the  fact  that  not  a  single 
pleasurable  sensation  is  associated  with  anything  belonging 
'to  the  people  or  city  that  I  observed  while  among  them.  This 
is  not  true  of  any  other  place  or  people  which  I  have 
sojourned  with  for  such  a  space  of  time  during  any  part 
of  my  life.  I  do  not  imagine  the  feeling  to  have  been  pecu 
liar  to  myself.  I  thought  it  was  common  to  all  the  foreigners 
I  saw,  and,  except  among  the  higher  classes  of  churchmen 
and  nobles,  to  the  Romans  themselves.  The  causes  that 
operate  upon  strangers  and  denizens  must,  however,  be 
different. 

"  It  may  not  be  very  easy  to  divine  the  cause  that  in 
fluenced  myself.  I  sometimes  thought  it  was  the  air  of 
religious  intolerance,  ever  present  in  city  and  country,  in  the 
churches  and  in  the  streets.  The  confinement  of  the  Jews 
ipprobriously  in  a  quarter  by  themselves  had  some  effect 
ipon  me,  but  I  had  seen  the  same  in  Amsterdam  without 
iny  such  impression,  and  I  was  indifferent  to  the  fact  that 
t  was  worse  with  the  Jew  in  Cologne,  where  he  is  not  per- 
nitted  to  abide  at  all.  I  felt  deeply  the  abomination  of  being 
urned  outside  of  the  walls  to  worship  God  after  the  manner 

13  193 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  57 

of  my  fathers,  in  a  sort  of  hay-loft,  with  hostile  guards  at  the 
door,  signifying  the  insolence  of  a  master  in  the  presence  of 
those  he  despises  and  hates,  but  cannot  possibly  fear.  Yet 
I  had  lived  in  Italian  cities,  Milan  and  Venice,  where  there 
was  no  practical  toleration  of  my  religion  at  all,  and  did  not 
feel  either  degradation  or  oppression. 

"  I  might  attribute  some  of  the  effect  to  the  ruins  of 
temples  and  palaces,  which  are  visible  everywhere  in  the 
southern  and  southeastern  parts  of  the  city,  and  to  the  con 
sciousness  that  everywhere  in  those  sections  you  are  riding 
or  walking  over  the  buried  works  of  the  former  rulers  of 
the  earth ;  but  the  truth  is  that  I  was  never  nearer  to  pleasure 
in  Rome  than  while  I  was  contemplating  these  ruins.  Partly 
the  satisfaction  of  beholding  the  traces  of  the  majesty  and 
accomplishment  of  the  old  Romans,  and  partly  the  absence 
of  the  modern  Romans,  who  crowd  the  plain  on  the  Tiber, 
but  whom  you  rarely  see  on  the  Palatine,  or  Aventine,  or  the 
wider-spreading  Celian,  made  me  better  contented  to  pass  my 
time  in  these  quarters  than  anywhere  else.  I  do  not  think  I 
ever  felt  melancholy  in  contemplating  any  Roman  ruin, 
unless  it  might  be  the  broken  lines  of  the  aqueducts,  which 
in  the  deserted  Campagna  remind  you  of  Tadmor  and 
Palmyra.  These  ruins  at  the  close  of  day  and  in  the  dusk  of 
the  evening  look  like  phantoms  which  you  may  suppose  are 
hovering  round  the  graves  of  Neros  and  Caligulas,  and  re 
proaching  them  for  having  led  the  way  to  their  decay  and 
the  downfall  of  Rome;  and  the  absence  of  every  trace  of 
life  in  their  neighbourhood  makes  the  sight  of  them  oppres 
sive.  But  ruins  generally  are  not  the  least  pleasing  part  oi 
Rome:  they  are  certainly  not  pleasurable  objects  of  con< 
templation,  however  instructive  and  exciting,  but  you  feel  ir 
their  presence  rather  more  comfortably  than  elsewhere  ii 
Rome. 

194 


1837]  ROME 

'  There  are  pictures,  and  statues,  and  frescoes  innumer 
able,  of  such  exquisite  beauty  that  I  am  compelled  to  wonder 
that  I  could  not  look  back  to  some  of  them,  at  least,  with 
the  gay  emotions  which  the  representations  of  some  portions 
of  mythology  are  calculated  to  excite.  Yet  whether  it  was 
the  palace,  like  a  prison,  in  which  I  saw  them,  or  the  neg 
lected  villa,  or  the  proscriptive  and  intolerant  church,  or  the 
Vatican,  the  seat  of  those  infernal  conclaves  from  which  have 
proceeded  the  poniards  of  the  Sicilian  vespers  and  the  fires 
of  Smithfield,  I  cannot  tell.  Something,  I  know  not  what, 
was  always  present,  not  to  prevent  admiration  or  astonish 
ment,  or  perhaps  any  intellectual  gratification  whatever,  but 
the  heart  was  not  at  ease,  the  spirits  were  not  buoyant,  there 
was  no  gayety  of  emotion,  no  animated  pleasure.  How  much 
have  I  seen  of  the  like  kind  in  other  cities  in  Italy,  where 
perhaps  I  might  have  discovered  some  of  the  same  sadden- 
ng  concomitants,  had  my  mind  taken  that  direction,  but  it 
lid  not,  and  I  saw  them  not! 

"  Like  the  poetical  lover,  who  was  unable  to  point  out 

;he  particular  feature  or  grace  that  made  his  mistress  divine, 

ind  said  it  was  *  Celia  altogether,'  so  am  I  compelled,  in  seek- 

ng  for  the  cause  of  very  opposite  effects,  to  say  it  was  Rome 

Altogether.    It  was  her  intolerance,  her  ruins,  her  prison-like 

>alaces,  neglected  villas,  proscriptive  churches,  and,  above 

11,  the  people  whom  these  things,  operating  on  a  proud  spirit, 

lave  made  bitter,  sharp,  sour,  intolerant,  fanatical,  never  for 

moment  jovial,  gay,  or  debonnaire.    It  is  Rome  altogether 

«  hat  accounts  for  the  effect,  and  I  quit  her,  not  sorry  that 

have  looked  upon  all  parts  of  her  for  two  months,  but 

eartily  glad  to  get  away  from  her." 

When  visiting  St.  Peter's  one  day,  Mr.  Binney's  keen, 

«   nd  possibly  imaginative,  eye  detected  what  no  other  traveller 

eems  to  have  called  attention  to, — namely,  a  likeness  of 

195 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  57  ! 

Thomas  Jefferson,  though  not  in  the  representation  of  any  i 
human  face.     Writing  from  Rome,  he  said,  "  Apropos  of  ? 
Jefferson,  the  best  likeness  I  have  seen  of  him  is  in  the  two  I 
Death's  heads  in  the  sarcophagus  below  the  statue  of  Clement  ! 
X.  in  St.  Peter's.     I  looked  again  and  again  to  see  if  they  | 
were  not  intended  for  a  personage  rather  older  than  Death, 
but  finally  had  to  admit  that  they  were  intended  for  his 
son,  who  I  think,  according  to  Milton,  had  some  of  the  traits 
of  his  mother,  Sin,  and  was  so  far  less  respectable  than  his 
father." 

After  a  stay  at  Naples,  where  Mr.  Binney  climbed  to  the 
top  of  Vesuvius  with  the  energy  and  enthusiasm  of  a  much 
younger  man,  the  party  went  by  steamer  to  Genoa,  where 
the  quarantine  prevented  their  landing,  thence  to  Marseilles, 
where  four  days  of  the  same  "  solemn  farce"  were  required, 
and  thence  by  land  to  Paris. 

During  the  whole  tour  he  lost  no  opportunity  to  visit  any 
botanic  garden  or  flower  show  that  came  in  his  way,  or  to 
hear  the  best  music  wherever  it  could  be  had,  in  churches,  at 
public  or  private  concerts,  or  at  the  opera.    At  Rome  he  went 
to  St.  Peter's  every  Sunday  (at  an  hour  that  did  not  inter 
fere  with  the  English  Church  service  outside  the  walls ) ,  and 
usually  with  the  keenest  pleasure,  but  on  January  1,  1837,  he 
was  forced  to  record  that,  after  hearing  some  very  pooi 
music  at  an  early  service  at  the  Trinita  de'  Monti,  he  had  £ 
further  disappointment.     "  I  tried  to  mend  my  fortune  ty 
going  to  the  Cappella  del  Coro  in  St.  Peter's,  but  my  fat< 
was  unrelenting ;   for,  to  my  horror, — yea,  to  my  anguish,- 
a  solo  was  sung  an  eighth  above  the  organ  all  the  way.    Be 
fore  it  was  half  over  I  had  a  verdadero  dolor  de  tripas,  an< 
when  it  was  done  there  was  not  a  tooth  in  my  head  that  di< 
not  feel  loose.     Shocking  to  begin  the  year  this  way,  and  i 
Rome,  too !    It  seemed  extraordinary  to  me  that  the  official 

196 


1837]  MUSICAL    EXPERIENCES 

of  the  chapel  did  not  drive  the  man  from  the  organ  gallery. 
They  sat  patiently,  however,  and  if  it  did  not  turn  to  their 
profit  as  a  treat,  no  doubt  it  did  as  a  penance." 

The  next  week,  however,  he  was  able  to  write:  "  After 
church  in  my  own.,  I  took  my  usual  station  in  the  gallery  of 
the  Cappella  del  Coro,  and  enjoyed  the  highest  musical  treat 
I  had  in  Rome.  It  effaced  the  horrid  impression  of  the  last 
Sunday.  Four  voices  of  excellent  tone — a  basso,  a  soprano, 
and  two  contraltos — gave  several  solos,  duets,  and  quartos, 
and  were  followed  magnificently  by  the  organ  and  full  choir. 
What  added  vastly  to  the  zest  was  that  I  was  nearly  alone  in 
the  opposite  gallery.  The  presence  of  a  great  number  of 
persons,  and  especially  their  being  near  to  me,  always  inter 
feres  with  my  enjoyment  of  music." 

One  of  Mr.  Binney's  musical  experiences  at  Paris,  in 

April,  1837,  surpassed  all  the  others.    "  The  greatest  musical 

treat  I  enjoyed  in  Europe  [was]  a  concert  at  the  Societe  des 

Concerts, — Conservatoire, — which  began  at  two  and  closed 

about  four  o'clock.     The  musical  corps  consisted  of  about 

eighty.    Eight  double  bassos  will  serve  to  indicate  the  force 

and  completeness  of  the  parts.    It  was  the  highest  exhibition 

}f  instrumental  music  that  I  had  ever  witnessed  or  could 

conceive.     The  leader  was  Habanek,  who  did  not  touch  the 

strings  of  his  violin,  but,  with  his  bow  in  hand,  his  fine, 

:all,  erect  figure  (though  obviously  a  man  of  sixty)  assisting 

ill  his  movements,  he  preluded  the  very  expression  that  the 

tiece  required,  sometimes  restraining  the  orchestra  by  his 

gentle  motion  to  the  delicacy  of  a  whisper,  and  sometimes 

ashing  them  by  the  vehemence  of  his  bow  into  the  violence 

nd  uproar  of  a  hurricane.    The  first  piece  was  a  symphony 

>y  Tagliasbeck,  a  name  I  never  heard  before,  and  the  second 

Beethoven's  '  Symphony  in  ut  minor,'  perfectly  ravishing. 

t  gave  me  at  one  time  so  violent  a  stitch  in  my  side  that  I 

197 


HORACE    BINNEY  [Mv.  57 

had  to  press  my  hand  against  it  with  great  force  to  remain 
in  my  seat.  If  any  one  required  to  know  what  a  concert 
should  be, — orchestra,  salon,  and  audience, — he  need  only 
have  been  present  at  this  performance.  .  .  .  The  most  pro 
found  silence  was  observed  during  every  piece  except  at  the 
conclusion,  and  with  one  other  exception  that  discovered  the 
musical  breeding  as  well  as  sensibility  of  the  audience.  A 
passage  of  most  exquisite  beauty  in  Beethoven's  symphony 
transported  two  or  three  voices  into  'Bravo!  Bravo!'  and 
then  hands  not  a  few  were  getting  into  action,  when  a  quick 
and  impatient  '  hist,  hist,'  from  myself  and  twenty  others  in 
my  neighbourhood  brought  all  to  immediate  silence.  We 
were  losing  all  that  remained  of  the  beautiful  passage  by  this 
ill-timed  applause.  The  orchestra  got  it  with  interest  when 
the  piece  was  finished.  These  two  symphonies,  a  trio  by 
Made  Falcon  and  two  men,  all  French,  and  a  concerto  on  the 
violin  by  a  young  eleve  named  Dankla,  were  the  whole  pro 
gramme.  Beethoven's  symphony  made  me  indifferent  to  al 
that  followed.  From  the  date  of  this  performance  I  shal 
feel  myself  authorized  to  say  what  is  and  what  is  not  gooc 


music." 


Leaving  Paris  a  second  time,  Mr.  Binney  reached  Eng 
land  in  April,  after  a  channel  trip  of  unusual  roughness. 

"Thursday,  18th  April   [1837].     A  norther,  or  nor' 
wester,  had  been  blowing  several  days,  and  was  still  blowing 
when  we  came  down  to  breakfast,  and  when  the  steamboa 
agents  were  upon  us  for  both  the  French  and  the  Britia 
steam-packets  for  Dover.     Whenever  I  have  my  choice 
take  an  Englishman  for  my  captain,  if  I  can't  get  an  Amer 
can.     An  old  salt  named  Hamilton  had  the  British  mai- 
packet,  and  I  told  him  I  would  go  with  him  if  he  woul 
certainly  go.     He  said  he  certainly  would  go  if  the  wate 
would  let  him  go  over  the  bar,  which  the  shingle  packed  i 

198 


1837]  CROSSING    THE    CHANNEL 

by  the  sea  had  increased,  and  made  its  draught  less  than 
usual;  but  he  did  not  believe  the  Frenchman  would  follow 
him.  At  five,  the  hour  named,  he  sent  his  mate  down  to  the 
pier-head  to  look  at  the  marks,  and  when  he  reported  favour 
ably,  off  we  pushed  with  a  good  head  of  steam,  some  twenty 
passengers  on  board,  including  M.  Chevalier,  who  was  going 
on  some  public  errand  to  London.  As  we  ran  down  the  long 
wharf  to  the  pier-head,  the  steward  distributed  his  basins  by 
the  side  of  each  passenger,  and  gave  me  one  which  I  pushed 
with  my  boot  to  a  neighbour  who  looked  as  if  he  would  re 
quire  two  if  he  required  any.  In  two  minutes'  time  I  went 
to  the  companion  to  see  how  the  boat  would  behave  when  she 
struck  the  waves  on  the  bar,  but  the  helmsman  told  me  I 
should  be  wet  to  the  skin  if  I  did  not  go  below,  and  I  took 
his  hint.  I  had  not  been  down  half  a  minute  before  we  all 
felt  that  she  was  in  it,  and  such  a  line  of  ugliness  as  she  made, 
and  continued  to  make,  for  an  hour  I  do  not  think  I  ever 
before  witnessed.  Captain  Hamilton  gave  the  ladies  his 
cabin,  and  me  a  sofa  in  an  adjoining  apartment,  that  I  might 
lie  down,  for  standing  was  impossible  and  sitting  much  the 
same.  .  .  .  Every  man,  woman,  and  child  was  dead  and 
double  sick,  except  myself,  my  servant,  and  the  crew.  .  .  . 
As  we  neared  the  island,  and  foothold  came  again,  I  went 
on  deck,  and  the  first  word  from  Captain  Hamilton  was, 
*  Well,  sir,  the  Frenchman  would  not  follow  us.  He  dared 
n't,  sir;  he  dared  n't.  I  watched  him  with  my  glass  until  his 
pipe  was  under,  and  there  he  lay,  sir.  He'll  never  show  his 
paddles  to  this  sea.  Those  French,  sir,  are  very  prudent, 
very.  They're  a  cautious  people  at  sea,  sir.' ' 

A  fortnight  in  London  was  followed  by  a  month  spent 
in  driving  through  England,  and  into  Scotland  as  far  as  the 
Trossachs  and  Edinburgh.  The  two  places  which  seem  to 
have  excited  the  keenest  interest  were,  as  might  have  been  ex- 

199 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Bx.  57 

pected,  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  in  Mr.  Binney's  eyes  the  chief 
sources  of  England's  greatness.  Of  Cambridge  he  wrote: 
"  Behind  this  college  [King's]  and  the  others  before  stated 
[Trinity,  Clare  Hall,  and  St.  John's]  sleeps  the  Cam,  unless 
when  its  slumbers  are  disturbed  by  the  wherries  of  the  stu 
dents,  a  few  only  of  which  we  saw,  the  fleet  being  laid  up 
in  ordinary  for  the  long  vacation,  now  begun.  Stone  bridges 
of  classical  form  span  this  water,  and  on  the  other  side  are 
walks  among  noble  trees.  I  sighed  as  I  thought  of  my  youth, 
while  walking  in  their  shade,  and  could  I  have  gone  back 
forty  years  would  have  selected  this  from  all  places  in  the 
world  for  my  education.  But  I  doubt  not  it  must  have 
been  an  education  for  England,  and  not  for  my  own  country. 
We  are  probably  better  made  for  our  work  and  the  condition 
of  our  society  (only  the  present  condition,  I  hope)  by  our 
own  colleges." 

Stratford-on-Avon  was  a  keen  disappointment,  the  at 
tempts  that  had  as  yet  been  made  there  to  preserve  the 
memory  of  Shakespeare  not  being  such  as  to  commend  them 
selves  to  an  enthusiastic  lover  of  his  plays. 

"  May  4, 1 837.  .  .  .  We  closed  our  day  with  a  poor  dinner, 
in  a  poor  theatrical  tavern  of  Stratford-upon-Avon,  every 
thing  in  it  and  in  the  town  looking  as  if  it  were  designed  to 
belittle  Shakespeare,  though,  thank  Heaven,  that  is  not  in 
the  power  of  man.  The  room  in  which  the  poet  was  born  is 
there,  its  walls  and  ceiling  covered  with  names  and  nonsense, 
which  we  felt  no  inclination  to  add  to;  his  tomb  is  in  the 
chancel  of  the  church,  and  his  effigy  against  the  wall;  the 
hotel  has  all  its  apartments  named  after  his  plays  (I  believe 
I  slept  in  'Macbeth,'  and  the  two  girls  in  'Juliet')  ;  and 
England  has  not  spent  a  pound  sterling  to  prevent  the 
whole  from  being  as  miserable  a  raree-shew  as  Punch  would 
have  preserved  to  immortalize  Judy.  The  town  is  a  poor  flat 

200 


1837]  ENGLAND 

affair,  the  Avon  itself  had  nothing  on  its  waters  but  dirty 
barges,  and  the  waters  themselves  were  fast  asleep." 

From  Liverpool  to  Manchester  occurred  the  only  rail 
road  journey  of  the  tour,  and  while  it  was  not  absolutely 
Mr.  Binney's  first  experience  of  railway  travelling,  there 
was  still  some  novelty  in  it. 

"  My  carriage  was  placed  on  trucks  upon  the  railway 
carriage,  and  passing  quite  deliberately  through  the  tunnel, 
five  minutes  to  a  mile,  making  two  stops  on  the  road,  and 
once  returning  a  little  distance  to  take  another  track,  the 
whole  time  from  Liverpool  to  Manchester  was  one  hour, 
fifteen  minutes,  and  this  time  was  all  we  gained,  for  the  rail 
road  cost  just  as  much  as  the  posting  would  have  done. 
Nothing  could  be  more  secure,  and  less  shackling  or  shaking 
than  the  road,  though  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  springs 
of  my  carriage  gave  a  false  account  of  all  the  roads  we  drove 


over." 


The  tour  ended  at  Portsmouth  in  June,  just  before  the 
death  of  William  IV.  and  accession  of  Victoria,  and  the 
party  reached  New  York  in  August,  after  a  safe  but  tedious 
voyage  of  over  forty  days. 


201 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Bx.  57-58 


IX 

RETIREMENT  FROM  COURT  PRACTICE— GIRARD  WILL 

CASE 

1838-1844 

A^TER  his  return  from  Europe  Mr.  Binney  confined 
himself  to  office  practice,  mainly  to  giving  opinions 
on  legal  questions.  The  opinions  by  which  he  is  best 
known  are  those  in  regard  to  land  titles,  and  the  reliance  upon 
these  has  always  been  practically  as  great  as  upon  the  policies 
of  the  strongest  title  insurance  companies  of  to-day.  In 
regard  to  his  retirement,  it  is  said  1  that  an  important  case, 
involving  litigation,  was  brought  to  him  on  January  4,  1840, 
a  few  minutes  after  noon.  Pointing  to  the  clock,  he  said, 
with  a  smile,  but  firmly,  "  At  twelve  o'clock  I  was  sixty 
years  of  age ;  you  are  too  late.  I  have  relinquished  the  active 
practice  of  the  law.  Take  the  case  to  Mr.  Sergeant."  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  this  could  scarcely  have  been  the  first 
retainer  which  he  declined  on  the  ground  of  retirement,  but 
he  may  have  made  use  of  the  circumstance  of  its  being  his 
birthday  to  make  his  refusal  more  emphatic,  and  thus  dis 
courage  similar  requests. 

His  career  in  Congress,  short  as  it  was,  galling  in  many 
ways  to  himself,  and  barren  of  any  visible  good  result,  had 
given  the  citizens  no  cause  to  be  ashamed  of  their  representa 
tive;  and  from  this  time  on  no  man  in  Philadelphia  com 
manded  greater  respect,  or  more  of  the  influence  which  rests 


1  The  late  Mr.  William  Tilghman  was  the  authority  for  the  story,  and  he  had 
good  means  of  knowledge. 


1837-38]     CHANGE    IN   JUDICIAL    TENURE 

solely  on  character  and  ability  and  is  not  due  to  the  con 
trol  of  the  machinery  of  political  parties.  This  influence 
was  not  always  successfully  exerted,  but  it  was  always 
recognized,  and  he  continued  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  leader 
even  long  after  his  great  age  prevented  his  appearing  in 
public. 

Being  of  course  keenly  interested  in  all  that  affected  the 
administration  of  justice,  and  especially  the  independence 
and  integrity  of  the  judiciary,  he  was  very  seriously  con 
cerned  over  the  work  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  of 
1837-38,  which  submitted  certain  amendments  to  the  vote  of 
the  people  of  Pennsylvania.  These  amendments  changed 
the  qualifications  for  the  suffrage ;  imposed  certain  restraints 
on  legislative  power;  subjected  the  governor's  appoint 
ments  to  confirmation  by  the  State  Senate;  made  elective 
the  offices  of  justices  of  the  peace,  clerks  and  prothonotaries 
of  courts,  recorders  of  deeds,  and  registers  of  wills,  and, 
most  radical  of  all,  made  the  commissions  of  all  judges  run 
for  a  term  of  years  only.  Fairness  would  have  demanded 
that  amendments  relating  to  such  different  matters  be  voted 
on  separately,  but  they  were  submitted  for  adoption  or  re 
jection  collectively,  without  any  power  of  selection  among 
them. 

Before  these  changes  were  proposed  there  does  not  seem 
to  have  been  any  strong  popular  wish  for  any  of  them,  least 
of  all  for  those  affecting  the  judiciary,  with  whose  rulings 
no  fault  had  been  found ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  there  was 
no  decided  opposition  to  them.  They  seem  to  have  been 
thought  a  natural  development  in  the  line  of  so-called  popu 
lar  government,  an  inevitable  condition  of  modern  life,  like 
the  chess-board  arrangement  of  our  cities,  the  plainness  of 
men's  dress,  long  trousers,  stiff  hats,  or  any  of  the  numerous 
sacrifices  of  the  picturesque  to  the  practical  which  have  dis- 

203 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  58 

tinguished  the  nineteenth  century.  In  Mr.  Binney's  eyes, 
however,  the  tenure  of  all  judicial  offices,  even  the  lowest, 
during  good  behaviour,  was  essential  to  the  due  execution  of 
the  laws  and  the  maintenance  of  the  rights  of  the  citizens, 
because  by  this  tenure  alone  could  the  judges  be  free,  as  far 
as  human  beings  ever  can  be  free,  from  the  temptation  to  give 
their  decisions  by  the  influence  of  fear  or  favour.  He  did 
not  expect  the  governors  to  appoint  ideally  perfect  justices 
of  the  peace,  recorders,  etc.,  but  he  knew  that  their  appoint 
ments  were  likely  to  be  at  least  as  good  as  the  nominations 
of  party  conventions,  probably  better;  and  he  realized  that 
the  change  proposed  as  to  the  minor  judiciary  would  but  too 
surely  lead  in  the  future  to  the  making  of  all  judicial  offices 
elective.  Could  he  have  foreseen  the  time  when  it  should  be 
the  custom  for  judicial  candidates  to  be  practically  assessed 
for  large  contributions  to  the  party  treasury,  as  the  tacitly 
recognized  price  of  their  nominations,  he  would  have  re 
garded  the  work  of  the  convention  with  nothing  less  than 
horror. 

At  the  request  of  those  who  shared  his  views,  Mr.  Binney 
drew  up  an  address  to  the  people  of  the  State,  urging  them 
to  vote  against  all  the  proposed  amendments,  since  no  dis 
crimination  among  them  was  possible,  but  the  address  was 
mainly  in  regard  to  appointments  and  judicial  tenure,  and 
some  parts  of  it  may  be  worth  quoting. 

A  third  class  [of  amendments]  proposes  a  restraint  upon  the 
executive,  by  making  his  appointments  subject  to  the  consent  of  the 
Senate,  and  by  taking  from  him  altogether  the  appointment  of  clerks 
and  prothonotaries,  recorders  of  deeds,  and  registers  of  wills,  and 
giving  it,  with  one  unintelligible  exception,  to  the  people  through  their 
elections.  .  .  . 

If  there  be  any  doubtful  point  among  those  who  have  observed 

204 


1838]     CHANGE    IN   JUDICIAL    TENURE 

the  working  of  constitutions  in  the  United  States,  it  is  this  very  pro 
vision  for  advisory  power  in  the  Senate.  In  many  cases,  through 
personal  influence  of  the  executive,  it  has  no  effect.  When  it  has  any 
effect,  it  has  been  questioned  whether  it  does  not  take  from  the  execu 
tive  officer  the  responsibility  which  should  rest  upon  him,  and  destroy 
all  responsibility  by  dividing  it  among  numbers.  It  has  been  more 
than  questioned  whether  it  does  not  enlarge  the  influence  of  intrigue 
and  combination  upon  appointments  to  office.  The  true  principle  for 
guarding  appointments  to  office  is  to  make  him  responsible  who  nomi 
nates  the  officer,  and  this  responsibility,  to  be  effectual,  must  be  felt 
by  him  who  nominates,  and  known  by  every  one  else.  It  must  be 
single,  individual,  and  unavoidable.  .  .  . 

What  are  the  two  great  arguments  for  the  tenure  of  good 
behaviour?  They  are,  first,  that  judges  will  in  general  more  faith 
fully  perform  their  duty  when  their  office  is  not  subject  to  determina- 
,  tion  by  efflux  of  time  or  by  the  pleasure  of  anybody ;  and  secondly, 
that  judicial  offices  which  are  so  subject  will  be  accepted  in  general  by 
men  of  inferior  attainments  only.  The  force  of  these  arguments  has 
been  resisted  and  their  truth  denied;  but  both  their  truth  and  force 
are  admitted  by  the  proposed  amendments.  Why  is  a  judge  of  the 
Supreme  Court  to  hold  his  office  for  fifteen  years,  and  a  president 
of  the  Common  Pleas  for  ten  years,  except  that  the  judges  who  settle 
the  law  in  the  last  resort,  by  which  we  are  all  bound,  may  be  farthest 
removed  from  the  influence  of  an  expiring  tenure,  and  that  a  larger 
range  of  selection  from  the  higher  attainments  of  the  bar  may  be  left 
for  the  bench  of  that  court?  .  .  .  The  difference  in  the  proposed 
terms  of  judicial  office  concedes  the  very  proposition  that  judges 
holding  office  for  years  will  be  governed  by  something  besides  their 
sense  of  public  duty. 

Upon  this  subject  of  judicial  tenure,  suffer  us  to  ask  you  a 
angle  question.  Constituted  as  man  is,  will  judges  in  general  be  as 
mpartial  and  upright  on  the  trial  of  a  cause  when  the  renewal  of 
heir  offices  depends  upon  the  favour  of  one  of  the  parties,  as  they  will 
>e  when  nothing  but  misconduct  can  deprive  them  of  their  office?  If 
his  question  must  be  answered  in  the  affirmative,  then  the  whole  ques- 

205 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JEi.  58 

tion  is  answered,  for  in  multitudes  of  causes,  and  most  important 
causes  too,  the  appointing  power,  or  those  who  create  and  influence 
it,  will  be  one  of  the  parties  in  name,  in  interest,  or  in  feeling.  They 
will  be  so  in  every  case  of  political  excitement.  They  will  be  so 
wherever  the  constitutionality  of  a  popular  law  is  brought  into  ques 
tion.  They  will  be  so  wherever  a  humble  individual,  who  has  no  stay 
but  an  impartial  judge,  is  opposed  to  a  political  leader.  They  will 
be  so  in  every  case  which  extensive  public  opinion  has  already  pre 
judged.  These  are  the  cases  in  which  the  interests  of  justice,  the 
great  permanent  interest  of  the  public,  require  that  judges  should 
be  left  to  the  support  of  an  equal  mind  and  undisturbed  nerves,  to  do 
their  duty  without  fear  or  favour,  and  yet  these  are  the  cases  in  which, 
if  the  amendments  be  adopted,  the  best  judges  may  feel  that  their 
solicitude  for  a  family  and  their  love  for  their  station  in  society  are 
knocking  at  their  hearts  to  persuade  them  to  give  a  judgment  that 
shall  be  acceptable  to  the  friends  who  can  renew  their  commission. 
How  many  will  listen  to  this  appeal  we  cannot  tell.  Is  it  wise  to 
expose  any  of  them  to  it?  One  man  in  a  thousand  may  come  out  of 
such  a  fire  like  refined  gold,  and  lose  his  office  for  conscience  sake, 
but  of  how  many  of  the  rest  should  we  have  to  say  that  they  have 
preserved  their  office,  but  that  their  fine  gold  has  become  dim?  We 
must  deal  with  men  as  they  are;  and  if  the  amendments  deal  with 
them  upon  any  other  theory,  they  are  not  fit  to  become  parts  of  a 
constitution  for  a  community  of  men.  Would  any  man  choose  that 
his  own  cause  be  tried  by  a  judge  who  depends  for  his  office  upon 
the  opposite  party?  If  he  would  not,  let  him  not  choose  such  a  judge 
for  any  other  person. 

This  address  was  signed  by  a  large  committee,  and  ap 
peared  in  the  papers  on  September  26,  1838,  the  election 
being  held  on  October  9.  Had  a  longer  interval  elapsed,  the 
address  might  have  had  more  effect,  but  this  is  doubtful. 
The  changes  accorded  with  the  spirit  of  the  time,  and  were 
approved  by  a  large  majority  of  those  who  took  the  trouble 
to  vote  at  all  in  regard  to  them.  While  the  result  may  not 

206 


• 


1838]     CHANGE    IN   JUDICIAL    TENURE 

have  justified  all  Mr.  Binney's  fears,  it  has  increased  neither 
public  confidence  in  the  impartiality  of  the  judiciary  nor 
the  efficiency  of  the  various  executive  officers  whose  positions 
were  made  elective. 

Mr.  Binney's  next  act  in  regard  to  public  matters  was 
more  successful.     The  Bank  of  the  United  States,  being 
refused  a  new  charter  by  Congress,  had  in  1836  received  a 
State  charter,  and  continued  in  business  under  its  former 
officers,  but  without  the  strength  previously  derived  from 
its  connection  with  the  national  government.    Its  president, 
Mr.  Nicholas  Biddle,  urged  Mr.  Binney  to  become  one  of 
the  directors,  as  he  had  for  a  time  been  a  director  of  the  first 
bank,  and  also  of  the  second,  but  he  declined.     He  had  too 
thoroughly  disapproved  the  course  of  the  second  bank  in  the 
spring  of  1834  (when  it  failed  to  persevere  in  curtailing  its 
iiscounts  and  retiring  its  notes,  in  preparation  for  winding 
ip  its  business  after  it  had  become  apparent  that  Congress 
vould  not  renew  the  charter)  to  have  any  confidence  in  those 
vho  were  responsible  for  this  vacillation.     The  new  bank 
leems  to  have  been  unsound  from  the  start,  but,  being  the 
eading  bank  of  issue  in  Pennsylvania,  it  practically  con- 
rolled  the  currency  of  the  State.     In  May,  1837,  all  the 
>anks  in  the  State  suspended  specie  payments,  resuming 
hem  after  a  while,  but  suspending  them  again  on  October 
,  1839.     For  want  of  a  better  currency,  the  paper  of  the 
Jnited  States  Bank  continued  to  circulate,  though  at  a  dis- 
ount  as  compared  with  specie.     Some  people  demanded 
pecie  of  the  banks,  and  even  sued  for  it,  but  Mr.  Binney 
<id  not,  not  wishing  to  embarrass  the  banks,  though  thinking 
lat  they  ought  at  once  to  take  measures  to  uphold  their  own 
cedit  and  rid  themselves  of  all  connections  with  the  United 
ftates  Bank.     The  mass  of  the  business  men  of  the  city, 
bwever,  cared  less  about  the  kind  of  money  with  which  busi- 

207 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^ST.  59-60 


ness  was  transacted  than  about  the  effect  of  a  temporary 
stringency  in  curtailing  business  generally,  so  that  all  criti 
cism  of  the  prevailing  policy  was  very  unpopular. 

Early  in  December,  1839,  notice  was  given  that  certain 
loans  of  the  city  would  be  paid  off  on  January  1,  when  in 
terest  would  cease.  The  holders  of  the  loans  were  given  the 
option  of  taking,  at  par,  a  new  loan  at  a  lower  rate  of  interest, 
which,  under  the  conditions  then  prevailing,  would  naturally 
sell  at  a  discount,  or  of  being  paid  in  checks  on  the  United 
States  Bank.  Mr.  Binney  held  a  considerable  amount  (for 
those  days)  of  the  old  loan,  but  his  opposition  to  the  proposal 
was  based  mainly  upon  his  conviction  of  its  essential  dis 
honesty,  and  of  the  loss  that  it  would  entail  upon  those  less 
able  to  stand  it  than  himself.  He  felt  that  the  time  had 
come  to  call  a  halt,  and,  as  no  one  else  seemed  willing  to  act, 
he  determined  to  do  so  alone.  Accordingly  he  wrote  to  the 
City  Treasurer,  stating  that  he  was  perfectly  willing  to  let 
the  loan  stand,  but  that  if  it  was  to  be  paid  off  he  would 
refuse  payment  by  check  on  any  bank  that  had  suspended 
specie  payments. 

On  January  1  he  went  to  the  City  Treasurer's  office  and 
was  tendered  a  check  on  the  United  States  Bank,  which  he 
refused.     He  demanded  specie,  but  the  City  Treasurer  re 
plied  that  he  had  no  other  means  of  payment  than  the  check. 
The  next  day  Mr.  Binney  wrote  to  Mr.  William  M.  Mere 
dith,  president  of  the  Select  Council,  stating  the  facts  and 
renewing  his  demand.     Two  days  later  the  Public  Ledger 
published  the  letter,  and  on  the  7th  an  editorial  commending 
Mr.  Binney's  course.    He  wrote  to  the  Ledger  to  correct  s 
few  misstatements  in  the  editorial,  and  soon  after  wrote  £ 
pamphlet,  stating  plainly  all  that  had  occurred.     On  th< 
16th,  however,  before  the  pamphlet  issued  from  the  press 
the  Councils  adopted  the  following  resolution: 

208 


1839-40]     PAYMENT    OF    CITY   LOAN 

Resolved,  That  the  holders  of  the  loans  made  payable  on  1st 
January,  1840,  who  do  not  wish  to  receive  them,  shall  be  entitled  to 
six  per  cent,  interest  thereon,  payable  semi-annually,  the  Councils 
reserving  the  right  to  pay  the  same  at  any  time,  on  giving  the  holder 
thereof  one  month's  notice. 


This  was,  of  course,  all  that  Mr.  Binney  desired,  but  his 
success  in  inducing  the  Councils  to  abandon  their  scheme  of 
payment  was  even  less  remarkable  than  the  effect  upon  the 
city's  credit,  utterly  disproving  the  complaint  that  any  re 
fusal  to  accept  depreciated  bank-notes  was  an  attack  upon 
?redit  generally.  What  the  effect  actually  was  was  stated  in 
:he  Ledger  of  January  29,  as  follows : 

On  the  26th  December,  before  any  question  as  to  the  payment 
if  its  loans  was  publicly  agitated,  92  is  the  best  bid  for  the  city's  5 
>er  cent,  of  1851. 

On  the  2nd  January  it  was  understood  that  a  gentleman,  who 
'as  a  creditor  of  the  city  to  a  large  amount,  and  who  enjoyed  unusual 
'eight  of  private  character,  had  declined  receiving  bank-notes  in 
ayment  of  his  debt,  and  on  that  day  93%  is  given  for  a  loan  which 
ad  five  years  less  to  run  than  that  for  which,  with  2%  Per  cent, 
iterest  on,  only  92  had  been  bid  but  eight  days  before. 

By  the  llth  Mr.  Binney's  letters  had  appeared  in  nearly  all 
ue  papers;  the  rights  of  a  creditor  had  familiarized  themselves  a 
itle  to  the  public  mind,  and  on  that  day  97  is  bid  for  the  5  per  cent, 
r  1850,  an  advance  in  eight  days  of  3%  per  cent,  upon  a  former 
dvance. 

About  the  17th  the  papers  contained  the  resolution  of  the 
Ommittee  on  Finance ;  the  city  admitted  that  those  who  did  not  like 
i»tes  need  not  take  them;  and  on  the  20th  the  city  5  per  cent,  of 
U46  are  sold  at  99. 

On  the  23rd  the  report  of  the  Finance  Committee  had  been 
fiblished.  The  error  of  the  city  (though  defended)  could  not  be 

14  209 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  60 

denied.     A  precedent  is  established  in  favour  of  its  creditors'  rights, 
and  its  5  per  cent,  of  1846  is  sold  at  par.  .   .  . 

The  advance  is  not  upon  the  loan  of  1840,  already  due,  or  the; 
rise  might  be  put  to  the  account  of  specie  premium.  It  is  on  loans  f 
redeemable  in  1846,  1850,  and  1870;  too  far  ahead  to  speculate  (i 
on  suspension  and  the  premium  on  specie. 

The  advance  may  properly  be  attributed  to  the  grave  lessor :  I 
which  has  been  given  upon  the  unchanging  obligation  of  genera,  \ 
•faith;    of  faith  in  offering  to  perform  exactly  what  is  undertaken  tc 
be  performed.     This  is  cause  enough  for  even  this  effect;    for  fait! 
works  miracles  in  finance  as  well  as  in  religion. 

If  the  city  be  ever  forced  to  ask  another  loan,  it  will  reap  th< 
fruits  of  the  services  of  Horace  Binney.  Will  it  wait  till  then  t< 
acknowledge  them? 

The  general  tone  of  Mr.  Binney's  pamphlet  may  b< 
gathered  from  these  concluding  paragraphs: 

I  shall  here  close  these  remarks,  which  nothing  but  the  excite< 
state  of  feeling  prevalent  in  this  city  would  have  induced  me  to  make 
After  this  shall  have  abated,  and  whether  it  shall  abate  or  not,  I  hop 
to  be  permitted  to  pursue  my  own  lawful  ends  by  lawful  means.    M 
friends  and  myself  have  a  large  interest  in  the  city  debt,  running 
more  years  into  futurity  than  my  life  will  last.     We  have  paid  bot 
full  and  hard  value  for  it,  and  I  know  of  no  better  use  to  which  som 
of  my  remaining  time  can  be  applied  than  in  preventing  the  cit 
from  redeeming  this  debt  by  value  that  is  neither  full  nor  hard, 
will,  if  possible,  disturb  the  concerns  of  nobody  else;    and  if  to  se 
the  precedent  in  the  right  way  will  give  me  some  trouble,  it  will  \ 
of  all  the  more  value  to  those  who  come  after  me. 

...  I  was  well  aware  that  nothing  could  be  done  by  tl 
Councils  in  my  personal  behalf  that  must  not  be  done  for  every  cre( 
itor  in  the  same  situation.  Though  I  offered  privately  and  in  m 
own  name  to  continue  the  loan,  I  knew  I  was  offering  for  all  oth< 
creditors,  if  they  should  choose  to  do  likewise ;  and  the  trouble  I  ha1 
taken  and  the  responsibility  I  have  assumed  are  for  them  and  tl 

210 


1840]  PAYMENT    OF    CITY   LOAN 

public  as  much  as  for  myself.     I  would  willingly  sacrifice  the  sum  in 
question,  and  I  hope  more  if  necessary,  for  the  good  of  the  city ;   and 
:  this  is  small  civic  virtue  too,  for  her  good  is  mine ;   but  I  should  be 
i  false  to  my  affection  for  her  people,  to  my  pride  in  her  name  and 
;  institutions,  and  to  my  filial  regard  for  her  very  soil,  the  birthplace 
of  myself  and  my  children,  if  I  should  sacrifice  either  this,  or  any 
thing,  to  her  injury. 

I  have  not  looked  for  popular  favour  in  what  I  have  been 
doing,  nor  have  I  done  it  in  fear  of  the  reverse.  I  have  acted  with 
other  motives  and  to  other  ends.  Popular  favour  is,  without  doubt, 
worth  having,  as  a  means  of  doing  good,  when  it  is  a  reflection  from 
the  clear  and  warm  sunshine  of  a  man's  own  breast.  Except  when 
the  light  of  the  public  countenance  is  made  refreshing  from  this 
internal  source  or  support  of  it,  it  is  of  no  value  at  all.  At  best  this 
light  is  of  transient  and  precarious  use,  cold  even  when  it  is  brightest, 
often  and  on  a  sudden  overcast,  waning  by  a  law  of  its  own  nature 
to  a  mere  thread  at  last ;  and  all  this  perhaps  without  the  least  change 
whatever  in  the  observer.  I  desire  the  guidance  of  a  more  steady 
ind  enduring  light. 

On  the  part  of  the  United  States  Bank  and  its  friends 

)oth  in  and  out  of  Councils  the  opposition  to  Mr.  Binney's 

lemand  was  very  bitter.    They  tried,  and  fully  expected,  to 

)reak  him  down,  but  he  had  aroused  against  them  a  public 

opinion  which  was  too  strong  to  be  overcome.      He  fully 

*  jealized  the  seriousness  of  the  situation,  and  that  in  case  of 

ailure  his  self-respect  would  probably  compel  him  to  leave 

Philadelphia  altogether;   but  having  made  up  his  mind,  he 

?as  perfectly  indifferent  to  the  consequences,   and  went 

i  trough  the  whole  affair  as  calmly  as  if  it  had  been  purely 

professional  matter.     It  was  said  by  many  that  no  other 

lan  in  Philadelphia  could  have  won  such  a  victory  over  the 

ity  government  and  the  banks,  or  would  even  have  attempted 

;.    In  a  letter  of  February  7,  1840,  to  Judge  White,  Mr. 

Jinney  reviewed  the  affair  as  follows: 

211 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^T.  60-62 


Your  kind  letter  was  welcome  to  me,  as  all  that  I  receive  from 
you  are.  It  was  worth  a  great  deal  more  than  the  "  Remarks"  which 
were  the  occasion  of  it,  and  which  have  no  claim  to  what  you  say  of 
them,  except  from  their  sincerity.  I  had  no  expectation  of  being 
carried  further  than  my  letter  to  the  Councils,  until  a  few  days  after 
its  publication  as  part  of  the  proceedings  of  those  bodies  ;  but  finding 
that  the  Whig  papers  were  nervously  afraid  of  the  subject,  so  much 
so  as  to  reject  even  animadversions  upon  the  act,  and  that  I  was 
getting  great  praise  from  some  sources  from  which  it  is  quite  sus 
picious  to  receive  it,  I  determined  to  tell  my  own  story.  As  I  have 
told  my  brother  Sargent,2  the  only  credit  I  deserve  for  it  I  shall  not 
get,  —  namely,  that  I  wrote  it  in  a  rage  and  was  able  to  cut  off  the 
communication  between  my  liver,  which  I  take  to  be  the  seat  of  our 
bitter  feelings,  and  my  pen.  I  meant  to  write  it,  however,  in  a  spirit 
of  self-collected  defiance,  and  my  friends  tell  me  that  is  plain  enough. 
It  has  had  the  rare  effect  of  bringing  all,  as  far  as  I  can  discover, 
to  one  mind  with  me,  and  perhaps  the  best  evidence  of  it  is  in  the 
immediate  impression  it  made  upon  the  city  debt  by  raising  the  5 
per  cents,  to  par  after  they  had  stood,  as  you  may  perceive  by  the 
pamphlet,  at  about  90  per  cent.,  deducting  the  interest  then  accruing. 
I  have  answered  the  use  of  a  post  on  a  wharf,  to  show  the  people  who 
were  going  down  the  stream  faster  than  they  wished  where  they  might 
make  fast;  and,  indeed,  I  do  not  know  any  better  service  that  a  man 
can  render  to  the  community  than  by  thus  posting  himself;  there 
are  so  few  that  are  satisfied  to  render  so  humble  a  service.  I  ought, 
perhaps,  to  say  further  that  I  gave  it  to  be  understood  through  the 
town,  and  modestly  (I  think)  intimated  it  in  the  National  Gazette, 
that  I  would  follow  in  the  discussion  of  the  subject  whenever  anj 
respectable  name  would  lead  me,  and  at  first  hoped  some  one  woulc" 
accept  my  challenge,  for  I  had  some  saucy  things  to  say  if  occasior 
should  be  publicly  given.  But  I  am  now  satisfied  that  no  one  (with  £ 
name)  came  into  the  lists.  All  excitement  having  been  immediately 
suppressed,  the  matter  has  had  an  opportunity  of  settling  into  men'.' 
minds,  instead  of  being  thrown  off  from  the  surface,  as  party  spasn 


2  Lucius  M.  Sargent,  Esq.,  of  Boston,  who  had  married  Mr.  Binney's  younger  sistei 

212 


1840-42]          DISTRICT    JUDGESHIP 

always  throws  it,  however  good  or  true;    and  therefore  I  may  hope 
that  good  has  been  done. 

On  the  death  of  Judge  Hopkinson,  of  the  United  States 
1  District  Court,  in  January,  1842,  President  Tyler  appointed 
!  Mr.  Binney  to  the  vacant  judgeship,  and  the  Senate  at  once 
confirmed  the  appointment.     The  President  then  wrote  to 
ask  his  acceptance  of  the  position,  stating  that  the  course  he 
had  pursued  in  nominating  Mr.  Binney  without  previously 
asking  his  consent  was  the  only  one  consistent  with  the  latter's 
character.     Mr.  Webster,  then  Secretary  of   State,  when 
.sending  the  commission,  also  wrote  to  express  the  satisfaction 
of  the  whole  Cabinet  at  the  appointment,  and  his  personal 
wish  that  it  should  be  accepted.      The  position  of  District 
Judge   for  the  Eastern  District  of  Pennsylvania  is  un 
doubtedly  an  honourable  one,  but  it  offered  few  attractions 
to  a  man  of  sixty-two,  whose  position  at  the  bar  was  such 
that  his  appointment  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  had  been  urged  twelve  years  before  and  who  had  for 
dx  years  voluntarily  withdrawn  from  court  practice.     Some 
)f  Mr.  Binney's  friends  urged  him  to  accept,  on  the  ground 
hat  this  appointment  would  necessarily  lead  to  a  higher  one 
n  the  future,  but  this  argument  did  not  appeal  to  him  in 
he  least.     He  would  not  have  accepted  any  judicial  office 
whatever  unless  it  had  been  manifestly  his  duty  to  do  so,  and 
n  this  instance  there  was  no  question  of  any  duty  whatever. 
Che  commission  was  accordingly  declined. 

Since  his  return  from  Europe  in  1837  Mr.  Binney  had 
ever  appeared  in  court,  and  he  had  no  intention  of  doing 
3  again;  but  in  1843  he  was  called  upon  to  make  the  last 
nd  most  important  argument  of  his  whole  career,  the  request 
eing  made  under  circumstances  which  appealed  so  strongly 
)  his  sense  of  civic  duty  that  he  could  not  refuse. 

213 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  63 

Stephen  Girard,  born  at  Bordeaux  in  1750,  a  cabin-boy 
at  fourteen  and  a  merchant  captain  at  twenty-three,  had 
settled  in  Philadelphia  in  1777  and  engaged  in  trade.  A 
man  of  great  industry,  energy,  and  shrewdness,  he  was  re 
markably  successful.  In  1812,  the  government  refusing  to 
recharter  the  United  States  Bank,  he  bought  its  building  and 
started  a  banking-house  there  himself,  though  still  continuing 
in  business  as  a  merchant.  He  died  on  December  6,  1831,  a 
childless  widower,  with  the  largest  fortune  that  any  one  man 
had  ever  yet  made  in  America.  By  his  will  he  gave  to  his 
relatives  over  two  hundred  thousand  dollars,  besides  making 
a  number  of  bequests  for  charitable  purposes  and  public  im 
provements,  but  he  left  the  bulk  of  his  property  (worth  at 
that  time  about  seven  million  dollars,  and  ultimately  even 
more)  to  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  in  trust  to  establish  and 
maintain  a  college  for  poor  white  male  orphans,  between  the 
ages  of  six  and  eighteen.  The  provisions  for  the  erection 
and  management  of  the  college  were  very  detailed,  and  one 
of  them  became  the  subject  of  much  discussion.  Being  more 
or  less  a  follower  of  Voltaire,  and  having  the  characteristic 
French  passion  for  carrying  out  an  idea  which  he  approved 
to  what  appeared  to  be  its  logical  results,  without  much  re 
gard  for  the  consequences,  Girard  had  thought  it  necessary, 
in  view  of  the  unfortunate  multiplicity  of  religious  sects, 
"  to  keep  the  tender  minds  of  the  orphans  free  from  the 
excitement  which  clashing  doctrines  and  sectarian  controversy 
are  so  apt  to  produce,"  and  to  this  end  he  provided  that  the 
scholars  should  be  taught  "  the  purest  principles  of  morality,' 
but  that  "  no  ecclesiastic,  missionary,  or  minister  of  any  seci 
whatsoever"  should  ever  set  foot,  even  as  a  visitor,  within  th( 
college  grounds,  which  were  to  be  surrounded  by  a  high  stone 
wall. 

The  gratitude  of  Girard's  relatives  for  their  respectiv< 

214 


1843]  GIRARD   WILL    CASE 

legacies  did  not  equal  their  disappointment  at  not  receiving 
more,  and  in  1836  they  filed  a  bill  in  the  United  States 
Circuit  Court  to  have  the  trust  declared  void,  on  the  ground 
that  the  city  could  not  hold  a  trust,  and  that  the  objects  of 
the  charity  were  too  vague  and  indefinite  to  be  capable  of 
execution.  Subsequently  they  also  attacked  the  exclusion 
;  of  ecclesiastics,  urging  that  the  college  would  become  a  means 
of  propagating  infidelity,  and  that  in  consequence  the  trust 
was  contra  bonos  mores.  The  case  came  on  for  hearing  at 
April  Sessions,  1841,  but  the  complainants'  counsel  made  no 
i  argument,  and  the  bill  was  dismissed  and  an  appeal  taken. 
This  was  first  argued  in  the  Supreme  Court  in  1843,  by  Mr. 
Stump,  who  was  one  of  the  complainants,  and  Mr.  Walter 
Jones,  of  Washington,  the  city  being  represented  by  Mr. 
Sergeant.  Three  of  the  judges  being  absent  (among  them 
Judge  Story,  a  recognized  authority  on  equity),  a  reargu- 
ment  before  a  fuller  court  was  ordered  for  the  next  term. 
It  was  currently  rumoured  that  the  six  judges  who  sat  were 
equally  divided,  but  the  mere  fact  that  a  reargument  had  been 
ordered  showed  that  neither  side  could  count  on  an  easy 
victory.  Accordingly  the  complainants  retained  Daniel 
Webster,3  whose  eminence  was  scarcely  less  at  the  bar  than 
in  the  Senate,  and  to  meet  this  move  the  city  turned  to  Mr. 
Binney. 

Up  to  this  time  the  city  authorities  had  apparently  not 
contemplated  the  possibility  of  defeat,  and  having  been  in 
possession  of  the  property  for  several  years,  they  had  gone 
ahead  and  spent  a  great  deal  of  it  in  the  erection  of  build 
ings.4  To  be  called  upon  to  account  to  the  heirs  would  have 


8  Webster  had  recently  resigned  the  Secretaryship  of  State. 

*  The  corner-stone  of  the  college  had  been  laid  on  July  4,  1833,  but  the  build- 
ngs  were  not  completed  until  November  23,  1847.  The  college  was  formally 
>pened  on  January  1,  1848. 

215 


HORACE    BIXXEY  ^T.  63 


been  a  very  serious  matter.     Hence  when  Mr.  Thomas  P. 
Cope,  who  was  one  of  Girard's  executors  and  a  leading  mem-  ; 
ber  of  Councils,  called  on  Mr.  Binney  to  request  his  services 
at  the  reargument,  he  said  that  it  was  not  an  ordinary  case, 
that  it  involved  most  deeply  the  interests  of  the  whole  city,  I 
and  that  Mr.  Binney's  friends  were  all  agreed  that  he  was 
not  at  liberty  to  refuse,  as  they  thought  the  argument  a  duty 
which  he  owed  to  the  city  where  he  had  passed  his  life  and 
where  he  had  always  received  the  highest  evidences  of  pro 
fessional  confidence  and  respect. 

Mr.  Binney  replied  that  he  had  retired  from  the  courts 
seven  years  before,  and  was  fully  and  agreeably  occupied  in 
giving  professional  opinions  ;  that  he  had  repeatedly  decliru 
to  attend  court,  and  had  not  contemplated  ever  deliveri] 
another  argument.  However,  on  Mr.  Cope's  insistence, 
finaDy  agreed  to  consider  the  matter. 

On  inquiry  he  learned  that  Mr.  Sergeant's  argument  had 
been  made  in  reliance  mainly  on  Pennsylvania  decisions,  and 
that  it  was  now  thought  necessary  to  investigate  the  funda 
mental  principles  of  charitable  trusts,  so  as  to  put  the  case 
on  the  strongest  possible  ground.  The  reargument  was  to 
be  in  no  sense  a  repetition  of  the  former  one.  This,  of  course, 
made  it  possible  for  a  new  counsel  to  present  his  own  argu 
ment  without  interfering  with  the  line  taken  by  Mr.  Ser 
geant,  but  Mr.  Binney  was  explicit  from  the  start  in  making 
his  acceptance  conditional  on  Mr.  Sergeant's  remaining  in 
the  case  if  his  health  permitted.  He  was  the  more  ex 
plicit  because  he  learned  that  an  influential  member  of  the 
Councils  wished  to  exclude  Mr.  Sergeant  from  the  argument, 
and  to  substitute  Mr.  William  M.  Meredith.  "  When  Mr. 
Cope  called  again,"  wrote  Mr.  Binney,  "  I  told  him  ...  I 
would  on  no  account,  as  an  old  friend,  prevent  or  be  the 
means  of  preventing  Mr.  Sergeant's  arguing  it  again.  If 

216 


1843]  GIRARD    WILL    CASE 

•  »  my  services  were  deemed  of  importance  to  the  city,  they 
must  be  sufficiently  so  to  authorize  me  to  annex  this  condition 
to  them,  on  account  of  my  personal  relations  with  hiim,  which 
I  did  not  mean  to  put  to  so  great  a  hazard  as  they  would  be 
by  my  consenting  to  take  his  place  in  the  argument.  ...  So 
accordingly  it  was  arranged  and  understood  explicitly  by  Mr. 
Cope  for  the  Councils,  by  Mr.  Meredith,  and  by  myself;  and 
with  this  entendu  I  agreed  to  take  part  in  the  cause,  and 
accepted  the  retainer  of  the  city. 

"  In  the  course  of  my  preparation  ...  I  conversed  on 
some  points  more  than  once  with  Mr.  Sergeant,  about  as  much 
as  was  our  practice  in  cases  in  our  own  courts,  where  he  uni 
formly  left  me  to  prepare  the  whole  argument,  if  I  was  to 
open,  as  I  generally  did,  he  being  three  months  my  senior  at 
the  bar,  and  as  I  thought  it  indispensable  to  do  in  this  case. 
I  believe  he  left  the  matter  to  me  with  perfect  confidence, 
and  probably  did  not  look  much  into  it,  if  at  all,  himself." 

Although  the  court  had  not  indicated  any  particular 
points  as  to  which  reargument  was  specially  desired,  it  was 
not  difficult  to  see  what  it  was  that  had  disposed  some  of  the 
judges,  at  least,  to  favour  the  complainants'  side.  The  name 
of  Marshall,  as  it  always  will  and  always  should,  carried  great 
weight  with  the  court,  and  his  opinion  in  Baptist  Association 
Df.  Hart's  Executors,5  delivered  in  1819,  as  well  as  the  con 
curring  opinion  of  Story,6  undoubtedly  gave  colour  to  the 
contention  that  a  trust  like  Girard's,  for  the  benefit  of  poor 
.vhite  male  orphans  of  a  certain  age,  a  class  of  persons  no  one 
)f  whom  could  assert  a  legal  right  to  be  a  beneficiary,  could 
lot  be  upheld  in  the  United  States.  That  case  decided  that 
i  devise  to  an  unincorporated  society,  in  trust  "  for  the  educa- 
ion  of  youths  of  the  Baptist  denomination,  who  shall  appear 


*4  Wheat,  1.  •  Printed  in  3  PeL,  461. 

217 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  63 

promising  for  the  ministry,"  with  a  preference  for  the  de 
scendants  of  a  certain  family,  was  invalid  in  Virginia;  not  j 
merely  because  the  society,  being  unincorporated,  could  not  j 
itself  hold  property,  but  also  because  the  trust  was  too  vague 
to  be  claimed  by  those  for  whom  the  beneficial  interest  was 
intended. 

In  the  Girard  case,  it  is  true,  the  trustee  was  a  municipal 
corporation,  but  if  Marshall's  doctrine  as  to  gifts  for  vague 
and  uncertain  objects  was  to  be  broadly  applied,  it  would  be 
fatal  to  the  trust,  and  it  had  been  so  applied  in  Maryland  and 
Virginia.  It  was  therefore  necessary  to  show  conclusively 
that  the  decision  in  the  Baptist  Association  case  was  founded 
upon  an  erroneous  idea  of  the  law  of  charitable  trusts  as  it 
had  existed  in  early  days,  before  the  statute  of  43d  Elizabeth, 
and  accordingly  Mr.  Binney  set  himself  to  study  the  legal 
history  of  charitable  trusts  as  it  had  never  been  studied  before 
in  this  country,  and  possibly  even  in  England.  His  researches 
disclosed  the  fact  that  charitable  trusts  for  uncertain  bene 
ficiaries  had  been  well  known  at  common  law  and  repeatedly 
upheld  before  the  statute  of  Elizabeth,  which  had  been 
enacted  merely  "  to  redress  the  misemployment  of  lands, 
goods,  and  stocks  of  money  heretofore  given  to  certain 
charitable  uses,"  such  misemployment  having  followed  the 
dissolution  of  the  religious  orders,  who  had  been  the  great 
trustees  for  charitable  uses  throughout  the  kingdom. 

It  does  not  disparage  the  learning  of  Marshall  and  Story 
to  say  that  in  1819,  when  they  decided  the  Baptist  Associa 
tion  case,  they  did  not  have  that  knowledge  of  the  law  of 
charitable  trusts  which  Mr.  Binney  acquired  in  1843.  The 
duty  of  investigation  is  primarily  that  of  the  counsel  and  not 
of  the  court,  but,  besides,  he  had  access  to  authorities  some 
of  which  could  probably  not  have  been  found  in  America  in 
1819,  while  others  were  then  not  even  in  print.  The  "  Cal- 

218 


1843]  GIRARD    WILL    CASE 

endars  of  the  Proceedings  in  Chancery,"  covering  the  reign 
of  Queen  Elizabeth  and  several  of  her  predecessors,  were  not 
published  until  1827,  and  from  these  Mr.  Binney  gleaned 
more  than  fifty  instances  of  an  exercise  of  chancery  juris 
diction  which  Marshall  had  positively  stated  there  was  no 
trace  of  whatever.  Moreover,  the  subject  had  been  studied  in 
England  since  1819,  and  Mr.  Binney  was  able  to  cite  the  con 
clusions  of  eminent  jurists  there  in  confirmation  of  his  own. 
Mr.  Binney 's  copies  of  the  volumes  in  which  the  opinions 
in  the  Baptist  Association  case  are  found  contain  some  inter 
esting  traces  of  his  work  in  preparing  for  the  Girard  argu 
ment.  His  pencilled  notes,  written  after  he  had  completed 
his  researches,  point  out  again  and  again  the  erroneous  views 
of  Marshall  and  Story  in  regard  to  the  law  as  it  stood  before 
the  43d  Elizabeth.  It  is  clear,  too,  that  he  thought  Mar 
shall's  view  much  too  narrow,  even  after  making  all  due 
allowance  for  the  conditions  under  which  the  opinion  was 
written,  for  the  final  note  is  this:  "  The  great  defect  of  this 
case  is  that  the  mind  of  the  chief  justice  is  not  applied  to  the 
subject  upon  grounds  and  principles  of  general  equity,  but 
it  is  a  search  after  the  fact  whether  chancery,  before  43d 
Elizabeth,  can  be  shown  to  have  exercised  the  power  of  en 
forcing  trusts  for  charities  that  could  not  be  directly  enforced 
at  law.  This  was  altogether  an  unworthy  research  for  such 


a  man." 


In  December  Mr.  Justice  Thompson  died.  It  was  gen 
erally  understood  that  he  had  been  in  favour  of  upholding  the 
trust.  At  all  events  his  death  made  it  possible  that  the  court 
might  divide  evenly  on  the  reargument,  and  while  this  would 
have  sustained  the  will,  it  would  not  have  settled  the  prin 
ciple  for  which  Mr.  Binney  was  contending.  If  he  had 
needed  any  further  stimulus  to  strive  for  a  victory  of  the  most 
decisive  character,  the  bare  possibility  of  a  divided  court  may 

219 


HORACE    BINNEY  [yEx.  64 

well  have  furnished  it.  As  it  turned  out,  however,  Chief 
Justice  Taney  was  too  unwell  to  sit,  and  the  case  was  ulti 
mately  heard  by  seven  judges  only,  Mr.  Justice  Story  pre 
siding. 

Mr.  Binney  reached  Washington  on  January  10,  1844, 
but  returned  after  a  few  days,  as  Judge  Story's  absence  de 
layed  the  argument.  Again  on  the  26th  there  was  further 
delay,  and  the  hearing  did  not  begin  until  a  week  later. 
While  confident  in  the  strength  of  his  argument,  Mr.  Bin 
ney  lost  no  chance  of  further  perfecting  it  if  possible,  and 
during  the  enforced  delay  he  wrote  more  than  once  to  his 
son  to  procure  authorities  to  which  he  had  not  yet  had  access. 
Still,  though  striving  to  turn  the  delay  to  some  advantage, 
he  found  it  irksome  enough,  and  the  very  cold  weather  did 
not  tend  to  improve  matters.  On  the  27th  he  wrote:  "  My 
cold  continues  and  is  to  wear  off  with  a  cough.  I  want  my 
voice  as  much  as  old  Jenkins  said  he  did  when  he  expected 
to  speak  at  his  hanging." 

On  February  2  Mr.  Jones  opened,  taking  substantially 
the  same  view  of  a  charitable  trust  that  had  been  taken  in 
the  Baptist  Association  case,  and  attacking  also  this  par 
ticular  trust  on  account  of  the  exclusion  clause.  On  the  5th 
Mr.  Binney  proceeded  to  lay  before  the  court  the  fruits  of 
his  exhaustive  study  of  the  case.  He  first  showed  that  Girard 
had  been  far  from  illiberal  to  his  relatives,  and  that,  in  con 
sequence  of  the  residuary  clauses  of  the  will,  they  could  gain 
nothing  by  a  judgment  adverse  to  the  trust.  '  The  com 
plainants'  whole  argument  against  the  charity  is,"  he  said, 
"  suicidal.  The  only  effect  of  it,  beyond  their  own  destruc 
tion,  is  to  give  [the  property]  to  the  city,  for  her  appropriate 
municipal  uses,  and  to  defeat,  without  the  slightest  benefit  to 
themselves,  the  noble  charity  that  their  kinsman  has  instituted 
for  the  poor." 

220 


1844]  GIRARD    WILL    CASE 

Turning  to  a  consideration  of  the  trust  itself,  Mr.  Bin- 
ney  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  attack  upon  Girard's 
will  was  an  attack  upon  all  charitable  trusts  in  the  United 
States.  He  said, — 

This  great  question,  involving  the  largest  pecuniary  amount 
that  has  perhaps  ever  depended  upon  a  single  judicial  decision,  and 
affecting  some  of  the  most  widely  diffused  and  precious  interests, 
religious,  literary,  and  charitable,  of  all  our  communities,  is  now  to 
be  brought  to  the  test  of  legal  researches  and  reasoning.  ...  If  we 
look  to  [the  complainants'  bill]  for  such  discriminations  between 
charitable  uses  as  will  leave  the  public  in  the  enjoyment  of  some  and 
deprive  them  only  of  others,  we  find  nothing  of  the  kind.  It  would 
have  been  some  relief  to  ascertain,  if  those  in  the  testator's  will  were 
thought  to  be  defective,  that  by  adding  or  subtracting  some  par 
ticular  characteristics,  we  might,  with  the  complainants'  consent,  fall 
upon  at  least  one  class  of  charities  that  has  enough  of  suspended 
animation  to  be  resuscitated  by  a  court  of  equity.  But  the  complain 
ants  leave  no  such  hope  or  expectation  to  the  public.  They  give  us 
no  principle  or  rule  by  which  we  can  discover  that  in  their  judgment 
there  are  any  redeeming  characteristics  of  a  good  charitable  use. 
They  allege  as  fatal  defects  in  the  uses  declared  by  Mr.  Girard  prop 
erties  that  are  not  only  common  to  all  charities,  but  are  inseparable 
from  their  very  nature.  They  treat  the  whole  institution  of  charities 
is  an  irremissible  offence  against  the  laws  of  property,  whether  legal 
>r  equitable,  except  so  far,  and  only  so  far,  as  the  Legislature  may 
lave  made  a  special  enactment  for  the  case. 

To  meet  an  attack  of  so  fundamental  a  character,  an 
ihnost  elementary  investigation  of  this  branch  of  the  law 
vas  needed.  In  answering  the  objection  that  the  Girard 
rust  was  void  because  the  beneficiaries  were  not  certain,  Mr. 
3inney  was  not  content  with  showing  that  a  trust  for  the 
upport  and  education  of  poor  white  male  orphans  of  a  cer- 
ain  age  was  neither  vague  nor  indefinite,  but  he  went  on  to 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^BT.  64 


completely  turn  the  tables  upon  his  antagonists,  proving  con 
clusively  that  uncertainty  as  to  the  beneficiaries,  so  far  from 
detracting  from  a  charitable  trust,  was  an  essential  feature 
of  it.  In  developing  this  part  of  his  argument  he  first  called 
attention  to  a  number  of  instances  of  charitable  trusts  for 
uncertain  objects,  and  of  the  vesting  of  interests  in  the 
beneficiaries,  and  went  on  to  say,  — 

The  argument  of  the  complainants  demands  for  all  charities 
that  certainty  and  defmiteness  which  are  the  badges  of  private  right; 
and  it  probably  will  not  be  surrendered  until,  by  rising  up  to  the 
source  of  charity,  it  is  shown  that  certainty  in  their  sense  is  its  bane, 
that  uncertainty,  in  the  sense  of  the  law  of  charities,  is  its  daily  bread, 
and  that  the  greatest  of  all  solecisms  in  law,  morals,  or  religion  is  to 
talk  of  charity  to  individuals  personally  known  to  and  selected  by 
the  giver.  There  is  not,  there  never  was,  and  there  never  can  be 
such  a  thing  as  charity  to  the  known,  except  as  "  unknown."  Uncer 
tainty  of  person,  until  appointment  or  selection,  is,  in  the  case  of  a 
charitable  trust  for  distribution,  a  never-failing  attendant. 

He  then  proceeded  to  rise  "  up  to  the  source  of  charity/' 
saying,— 

It  has  been  said  that  the  law  of  England  derived  the  doctrine 
of  charitable  uses  from  the  Roman  civil  law.  ...  It  is  by  no  means 
clear.  It  may  very  well  be  doubted.  It  is  not  worth  the  time  neces 
sary  for  the  investigation.  .  .  .  But  where  did  the  Roman  law  get 
them?  .  .  .  They  come  from  that  religion  to  which  Constantine  was 
converted,  which  Valentinian  persecuted,  and  which  Justinian  more 
completely  established;  and  from  the  same  religion  they  would  have 
come  to  England,  and  to  these  States,  though  the  Pandects  had  still 
slumbered  at  Amalfi,  or  Rome  had  remained  forever  trodden  down  by 
the  barbarians  of  Scythia  and  Germany.  I  say  the  legal  doctrine 
of  pious  uses  comes  from  the  Bible.  I  do  not  say  that  the  principle 
and  duty  of  charity  are  not  derived  from  natural  religion  also.  Indi- 


1844]  GIRARD    WILL    CASE 

viduals  may  have  taken  it  from  this  source.     The  law  has  taken  it  in 
all  cases  from  the  revealed  will  of  God. 

What  is  a  charitable  or  pious  gift,  according  to  that  religion? 
It  is  whatever  is  given  for  the  love  of  God,  or  for  the  love  of  your 
neighbour,  in  the  catholic  and  universal  sense, — given  for  these 
motives,  and  to  these  ends, — free  from  the  stain  or  taint  of  every 
consideration  that  is  personal,  private,  or  selfish. 

Viewed  as  a  definition,  this  statement  has  been  criticised 
as  more  religious  than  practical.    It  is,  however,  a  description 
of  a  charitable  gift  "  according  to  the  Christian  religion," 
from  the  stand-point  of  "  the  source  of  charity," — a  descrip 
tion,  in  other  words,  of  the  ideal  charitable  gift,  rather  than 
a  definition  to  which  all  gifts  which  are  to  be  upheld  as 
charitable  must  conform.    The  complainants  had  contended 
that  the  law  would  not  uphold  a  trust  in  favour  of  indefi- 
tiite,  unknown  persons,  and  Mr.  Binney  was  undertaking 
to  show  that  the  most  perfect  charitable  gift  was  that  where 
the  beneficiaries  were  least  known  to  the  benefactor.     It  is 
i  mistake  to  suppose  that  this  description  of  the  ideal  chari- 
;able  gift  was  intended  as  a  definition.    It  relates  to  motives 
ind  considerations  which  may  be  inferred,  but  can  never  be 
Droved  to  exist.     All  that  can  be  said  of  any  gift  is  that 
he  more  nearly  it  approaches  this  ideal,  the  more  truly  a 
tharity  it  is. 

The  argument  continued  with  a  discussion  of  charity 
Tom  the  religious  stand-point,  a  discussion  thoroughly 
piritual  in  its  tone.  Realizing  that  some  explanation  might 
>e  needed  for  thus  trenching  on  what  might  be  thought  the 
>rovince  of  the  preacher  rather  than  the  lawyer,  he  said, — 

It  has  been  by  no  means  my  intention  in  these  remarks  to  pro- 
ounce  a  homily  to  the  court  or  to  the  counsel.  It  is  not  without  some 
apugnance  that  I  have  blended  themes  of  this  nature  with  questions 


! 

HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  64 

of  law,  in  a  strife  for  the  recovery  and  defence  of  property.     But  ^ 
they  bear  directly  upon  questions  of  law,  and  especially  upon  the  "' 
great  question  which  I  am  now  to  discuss ;    for  they   disclose  the 
foundation  of  charitable  uses  and  one  of  their  inseparable  attributes,  I 
in  a  manner  most  effectual  to  answer  not  only  the  main  argument 
of  the  complainants'  counsel,  but  the  judicial  arguments  which,  in  one 
or  two  cases  in  our  own  country,  have  unfortunately  been  used  to 
defeat  them. 

After  disposing  of  the  legal  objections  which  had  been 
urged  against  the  trust,  Mr.  Binney  proceeded  to  establish 
its  validity,  demonstrating,  by  reference  to  group  after 
group  of  unassailable  authorities,  the  successive  propositions 
that  the  trust  was  good  by  the  common  law  of  England, 
which  was  the  common  law  of  Pennsylvania;  that  the  city, 
being  in  complete  possession,  was  not  seeking  the  aid  of  a 
court  of  equity;  that  the  trust  was,  however,  entitled  to  the 
protection  of  such  a  court  upon  general  principles  of  equity 
jurisdiction;  that  such  trusts  always  had  been  protected  in 
Chancery  by  its  original  jurisdiction;  that  the  statute  of  43d 
Elizabeth  only  supplied  an  ancillary  remedy,  long  since  dis 
used;  and  that  the  great  body  of  the  equity  code  of  England 
had  been  adopted  in  Pennsylvania  from  the  first,  as  well  as 
in  several  other  States.  In  short,  he  placed  the  Girard  trust 
upon  absolutely  impregnable  ground. 

In  the  discussion  of  his  first  proposition  Mr.  Binney  took 
up  the  objection  that  Girard  had  sought  to  found  an  anti- 
Christian  charity.  He  pointed  out  that  there  was  no  prohi 
bition  of  religious  teaching,  but  only  an  exclusion  of  eccle 
siastics,  and  that  expressly  because  of  the  multiplicity  of 
sects,  the  will  disclaiming  most  positively  all  intention  to  cast 
any  reflection  upon  any  sect  whatever;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  provision  for  instruction  in  "  the  purest  principles 
of  morality,"  and  the  references  to  "  the  sacred  rights  of 

224 


1844]  GIRARD    WILL    CASE 

conscience,"  and  to  the  adoption  of  "  religious  tenets"  by  the 
scholars  on  leaving  the  college,  showed  that  Girard  contem 
plated  that  the  scholars  should  be  qualified  by  Christian 
teaching  in  the  college,  to  become,  after  leaving  its  walls, 
intelligent  and  conscientious  members  of  Christian  bodies. 
He  said, — 

I 

Whoever  reads  this  will  by  its  own  light  only,  and  this  is  all  that 
;he  court  have  to  guide  them,  must  therefore  see  that  there  is  nothing 
in  it  like  an  interdiction  of  instruction  in  the  principles  of  the  Chris- 
ian  religion ;  and  I  contend  for  this  the  more  strenuously  because  the 
rust,  I  confidently  believe,  must  be  executed,  and  I  should  deprecate 
|t  as  a  great  public  evil,  as  well  as  a  perversion  of  the  will,  to  have  a 
loubt  remain  of  either  the  right  or  the  duty  of  the  trustees  to  give 
eligious  instruction. 

In  this  connection  Mr.  Binney  went  on  to  state  that  there 
'as  no  law  requiring  Christianity  to  be  taught  in  schools 
y  Christian  ministers,  that  a  great  deal  of  religious  in- 
:ruction  was  given  by  laymen,  as  in  the  case  of  Sunday- 
,;hools,  and  that  there  was  nothing  in  the  will  to  prevent  the 
reetiori  of  an  infirmary  outside  the  walls  for  the  use  of  the 
sholars  in  time  of  illness,  to  which  building,  if  so  placed, 
lie  exclusion  would  not  apply.  He  added  the  pertinent 
aggestion : 

If  this  exclusion  or  restriction  in  the  testator's  will  is  illegal, 
-  is  for  that  reason  null  and  absolutely  void,  and  the  consequence  is 
nt  that  the  charity  fails,  but  that  the  restraint — the  condition — is 
dfeated,  and  the  court  must  establish  the  charity  according  to  their 
s<ise  of  the  law.  It  is  a  condition  subsequent  to  the  gift.  The  estate 
hs  vested  in  the  trustees,  and  this  restraint  or  condition  is  a  restraint 
uon  its  use.  If  the  restraint  is  illegal,  the  use  is  not  bound  by  it. 
lie  complainants  gain  nothing  by  the  objection  but  the  unenviable 

15  225 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  64 

satisfaction  of  holding  up  their  benefactor  to  judicial  censure,  and 
possibly  to  more  general  reprehension.7 

Mr.   Sergeant  followed  with  a  general  review  of  the 
grounds  of  defence  presented  by  Mr.  Binney,  and  Webster 
then  replied  in  a  three  days'  speech,  directed  mainly  against 
the  exclusion  of  the  clergy  from  the  college.    He  contended 
that  the  trust  was  designed  to  foster  atheistic,  or  what  would 
now  be  called  agnostic,  education,  and  hence  was  not  really 
a  charity  at  all  in  any  view  that  a  court  of  equity  would  up 
hold.     This  part  of  his  argument  was  thought  so  strong  a 
plea  for  the  necessity  of  a  religious  education  that  it  was 
afterwards  published  as  a  pamphlet,8  on  the  request  of  a 
number  of  clergymen  and  others ;  but  as  the  exclusion  clause 
was,  as  Mr.  Binney  had  pointed  out,  in  no  sense  essential  tc 
the  maintenance  of  the  trust,  the  argument  was,  for  the  pur 
pose  for  which  Webster  was  retained,  less  pertinent  thai 
ingenious.     The  impression  which  it  made  on  Judge  Stor* 
was  as  being  "  altogether  an  address  to  the  prejudices  of  th< 
clergy."  9    Though  Webster's  views  as  to  the  anti-Christiai 
purpose  and  effect  of  Girard's  trust  were  opposed  at  ever 
point  to  Mr.  Binney's,  he  paid  high  tribute  to  the  latter' 
argument,  saying, — 

I  never,  in  the  course  of  my  whole  life,  listened  to  anythin 
with  more  sincere  delight  than  to  the  remarks  of  my  learned  frier) 
who  opened  this  cause,10  on  the  nature  and  character  of  true  charit 
I  agree  with  every  word  he  said  on  that  subject.  I  almost  envy  hi 
his  power  of  expressing  so  happily  what  his  mind  conceives  so  clear 

7  It  may  perhaps  be  thought  unfortunate  that  the  court  did  not  find 
necessary  to  settle  the  question  in  the  way  suggested,  and,  by  holding  the  exclusi 
clause  to  be  void,  allow  the  clergy  access  to  the  college. 

8  It  is  published  in  Webster's  Works,  vol.  vi.  p.  133. 

9  Story's  Life  and  Letters,  vol.  ii.  p.  469. 

10  The  words,  "  for  the  defence,"  should  have  been  added. 


1844]  GIRARD    WILL    CASE 

and  correctly.     He  is  right  when  he  speaks  of  it  as  an  emanation 
from  the  Christian  religion.     He  is  right  when  he  says  that  it  has 
its  origin  in  the  word  of  God.     He  is  right  when  he  says  that  it  was 
unknown  throughout  all  the  world  till  the  first  dawn  of  Christianity. 
i     He  is  right,  pre-eminently  right,  in  all  this,  as  he  was  pre-eminently 
q  i  happy  in  his  power  of  clothing  his  thoughts  and  feelings  in  appro- 
J    ,  priate  forms  of  speech. 

It  is  needless  to  say,  however,  that  Webster  cleverly 
turned  this  tribute  to  Mr.  Binney  into  an  argument  against 
the  latter 's  view  of  the  practical  effect  of  the  exclusion  clause. 

Judge  Story,  writing  to  his  wife  at  the  close  of  Web 
ster's  first  day,  gives  an  interesting  partial  glimpse  of  his 
own  impression  at  the  time. 

In  the  case  of  the  Girard  will,  the  arguments  have  been  con 
tested  with  increasing  public  interest,  and  Mr.   Sergeant  and  Mr. 
Binney  concluded  their  arguments  yesterday.     A  vast  concourse  of 
ladies  and  gentlemen  attended  with  unabated  zeal  and  earnest  curi- 
jsity  through  their  speeches,  which  occupied  four  days.     Mr.  Web 
ster  began  his  reply  to  them  to-day,  and  the  court-room  was  crowded 
ilmost  to  suffocation  with  ladies  and  gentlemen  to  hear  him.     Even 
he  space  behind  the  judges,  close  home  to  their  chairs,  presented 
.  dense  mass  of  listeners.    He  will  conclude  on  Monday.    The  curious 
>art  of  the  case  is  that  the  whole  discussion  has  assumed  a  semi- 
heological  character.  ...  I  was  not  a  little  amused  with  the  manner 
i  which  on  each  side  the  language  of  the  Scriptures  and  the  doctrines 
f  Christianity  were  brought  in  to  point  the  argument;    and  to  find 
le  court  engaged  in  hearing  homilies  of  the  faith  and  expositions 
f  Christianity  with  almost  the  formality  of  lectures  from  the  pulpit.11 

The  argument  ended  on  February  13,  and  a  fortnight 
iter  Judge  Story  delivered  the  opinion.  Though  he  had 
Titten  a  concurring  opinion  in  the  Baptist  Association  case, 

11  Story's  Life  and  Letters,  vol.  ii.  p.  467. 

227 


HORACE    BINNEY  [Mv.  64 

his  mind  was  thoroughly  open  to  any  new  light  that  might 
be  shed  upon  the  subject.  In  fact  he  called  Mr.  Binney's 
attention  to  a  recent  decision  of  Lord  Chancellor  Sugden,12 
which  he  had  not  seen,  and  which  he  admitted  would  have 
aided  his  preparation  of  the  case  if  he  had  known  of  it  before, 
as  it  had  involved  to  some  extent  the  same  line  of  research. 

Judge  Story  distinguished  the  case  from  that  of  the  Bap 
tist  Association,  and  admitted  that  the  court  had  more  infor 
mation  on  the  history  of  charitable  uses  than  it  had  had  in 
1819.  His  opinion  is  clear  and  concise,  and  wholly  along  the 
lines  of  Mr.  Binney's  argument.  A  letter  of  Story's  to 
Chancellor  Kent,  written  six  months  later,  says,  "  I  rejoice  to 
know  your  opinion  on  the  Girard  case.  The  court  were 
unanimous,  and  not  a  single  sentence  was  altered  by  my 
brothers  as  I  originally  drew  it.  I  confess  that  I  never 
doubted  on  the  point,  but  it  is  a  great  comfort  to  have  your 
judgment — free,  independent,  learned — on  it."  13 

Before  the  Girard  will  argument  Mr.  Binney's  standing 
as  a  lawyer  was  certainly  second  to  none  in  Pennsylvania,  and 
a  New  York  newspaper  writer  had  referred  to  him  in  1841 
as  "  second  to  no  man  in  the  United  States."  Still,  though 
known  outside  of  his  own  State,  both  as  a  lawyer  and  by  his 
short  career  in  Congress,  it  could  hardly  be  said  that  he  was 
a  man  of  great  national  reputation.  He  had  made  seven 
other  arguments  before  the  Supreme  Court,  losing  only  one 
of  them,  but  none  of  these  approached  the  Girard  case,  eithei 
in  the  amount  involved  or  in  fundamental  legal  importance 
It  may  well  be  that  Mr.  Sergeant's  original  argument  wa,( 
really  sufficient  to  win  the  case  as  far  as  upholding  this  par 


12  Incorporated  Society  vs.  Richards,  1  Dru.  and  War.,  258.     There  was 
copy   in   the   Harvard   Law  Library,   but   none   in   Philadelphia   or   Washington 
apparently. 

13  Story's  Life  and  Letters,  vol.  ii.  p.  467. 


1844]  GIRARD    WILL    CASE 

ticular  trust  was  concerned,  but  it  was  universally  recognized 
that  the  establishment  of  charitable  trusts  in  general  upon  an 
unassailable  legal  basis  in  the  United  States  was  Mr.  Binney's 
work,  both  in  the  research  which  preceded  the  argument  and 
in  the  argument  itself,  which  was  practically  an  epitome  of 
the  whole  law  upon  this  subject.  Without  making  any  in 
vidious  distinctions  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  from  this 
time  on  he  was  regarded,  throughout  the  whole  country,  as 
one  of  the  very  foremost  of  all  American  lawyers.  By 
many  he  was  even  thought  to  be  the  head  of  the  whole  bar 
in  the  United  States,14  but  he  always  laughed  at  such  a  sug 
gestion  himself.  This,  however,  is  certain,  that  as  long  as 
the  law  of  charitable  trusts  shall  exist  as  a  part  of  Ameri 
can  jurisprudence,  his  name  will  be  inseparably  connected 
with  it. 

Two  incidents  connected  with  this  argument  remain  to 
be  noticed.  There  was,  as  already  mentioned,  a  vacancy  on 
the  Supreme  Bench  at  this  time,  and  Mr.  Henry  A.  Wise 
has  stated,  in  his  "  Seven  Decades  of  the  Union,"  that  the 
appointment  was  offered  to  Mr.  Sergeant,  and  on  his  de 
clining,  the  same  offer  was  made  to  Mr.  Binney,  on  Mr. 
Sergeant's  suggestion.  As  to  the  interview  with  Mr.  Ser 
geant,  Mr.  Wise's  book  is  the  only  authority,  but  Mr.  Binney 
has  recorded  what  took  place  as  regards  himself,  in  an 
account  written  more  than  twenty  years  before  that  of  Mr. 
Wise,  and  therefore  presumably,  more  accurate. 


14  In  a  pamphlet  on  "  Personal  Liberty  and  Martial  Law,"  published  in  April, 
.862,  strenuously  attacking  Mr.  Binney's  view  of  the  suspension  of  the  privilege 
»f  habeas  corpus,  the  late  Mr.  Edward  Ingersoll,  with  characteristic  courtesy, 
luoted  Earl  Russell  as  having  publicly  referred  to  Mr.  Binney  as  "the  head  of 
he  bar  in  America,"  and  endorsed  the  statement  as  true.  Presumably  Mr.  Inger- 
oll  copied  an  incorrect  newspaper  despatch,  for  Earl  Russell's  words  in  the 
louse  of  Lords,  as  officially  reported,  were,  "  a  gentleman  at  the  head  of  the  bar 
ti  Philadelphia."  (See  Hansard,  3d  ser.,  vol.  clxiv.  p.  106.) 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^EJT.  64 

"  After  I  had  finished  my  argument,  which  kept  me  on 
my  feet,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  nearly  three  mornings,  a  per 
sonal  friend  of  President  Tyler,  holding  a  public  station,  and 
who  afterwards  received  a  high  appointment  from  him, 
visited  me  at  my  chamber  at  Gadsby's.  .  .  . 

"  After  referring  to  my  argument,  which  this  gentle 
man  spoke  of  in  terms  it  does  not  become  me  to  repeat,  he 
was  so  obliging  as  to  say  that  he  with  many  others  desired 
to  see  me  on  the  bench  of  that  court,  and  he  expressed  in 
urgent  terms  a  desire  that  I  would  permit  him  to  mention 
my  name  to  Mr.  Tyler  for  the  appointment.  His  intimacy 
with  Mr.  Tyler  was  quite  sufficient  to  justify  the  inference 
that  he  had  already  spoken  of  it  to  the  President;  but  he  did 
not  say  so,  and  I  have  no  reason  for  inferring  it  but  this 
intimacy,  the  absence  of  intimacy  with  myself,  and  the  prob 
ability  that  he  would  not  have  asked  my  consent  without 
having  some  reason  to  think  that  he  would  not  bring  me  a 
disappointment  by  obtaining  it. 

'  Without  in  any  way  adverting  to  its  being  the  New 
York  circuit  that  was  vacant,  and  therefore  that  the  bar  of 
that  State  would  naturally  and  most  justly  look  for  a  gentle 
man  of  their  own  State,  I  distinctly  but  respectfully  declined 
the  proposal.  I  told  him,  moreover,  that  I  had  now  attained 
the  age  of  sixty- four;  that  I  knew  what  I  had  done  at  the 
bar,  but  did  not  know  what  I  could  do  on  the  bench;  that  I 
had  no  time  to  learn  a  good  judicial  habit  and  manner,  if  it 
should  be  found  that  I  wanted  them  at  the  outset;  and  that 
there  were  other  circumstances  in  my  case  and  in  that  of  the 
court  which  it  was  unnecessary  to  mention,  but  that  upon  full 
consideration  I  had  determined  not  to  accept  any  judicial 
station  whatever. 

"  Whether  the  gentleman  repeated  this  to  the  President 
I  do  not  know,  but  upon  Judge  Baldwin's  death,  a  few 

230 


1844]  GIRARD    WILL    CASE 

months  afterwards,  the  commission  was  not  offered  to  me; 
and  if  it  had  been,  I  should  certainly  have  refused  it." 

Mr.  Wise's  book  shows  that  he  was  the  "  personal  friend 
of  President  Tyler"  who  visited  Mr.  Binney,  but  he  did  not 
write  until  after  1868,  and  his  reference  to  the  argument 
contains  several  inaccuracies.15  Of  the  interviews  he  wrote: 

The  evening  after  Mr.  Binney  had  concluded  this  great  argu 
ment,  in  January  (sic),  1844,  Mr.  Sergeant  was  visited  by  us16  at 
his  hotel  to  deliver  the  message  of  Mr.  Tyler.  Mr.  Binney  was  in 
the  next  room.  Mr.  Sergeant  received  the  compliment  with  gracious- 
ness  and  evident  pleasure;  but  he  did  not  hesitate  to  decline  the 
tender  of  a  place  on  the  Supreme  Bench.  Before  he  assigned  his 
reason  he  enjoined  secrecy  during  his  life,  and  especially  it  was  not 
to  be  disclosed  to  Mr.  Binney.  It  was  that  he  was  past  sixty  years 
of  age,  and  that  he  ought  not  to  accept,  but  he  regarded  Mr.  Binney 
as  being  much  more  robust  than  himself,  considered  that  Mr.  Binney 
might  accept,  and  did  not  wish  him  to  know  that  he  had  declined 
because  he  considered  himself  too  old,  and  requested  that  the  Presi 
dent  would  make  the  tender  of  the  place  to  him.  It  was  tendered  to 
Mr.  Binney  at  once,  and,  behold,  he  declined  it  for  the  same  reason, 
but  begged  that  Mr.  Sergeant  should  not  be  informed  of  his  reason, 
and  that  the  place  might  be  tendered  to  him. 

Neither,  we  believe,  ever  knew  the  reason  of  the  other  for 
declining. 

Mr.  Binney  said  that  he  had  once,  in  the  vigour  of  his  manhood, 
aspired  to  judicial  position, — to  a  seat  on  the  Supreme  Bench  of 
Pennsylvania ;  but  Mr.  Justice  Gibson,  of  that  State,  had  been  pre 
ferred  to  him,  and  that  cured  his  ambition,  and  he  had  never  since 
aspired  to  the  bench.17 

™E.g.,  that  Judge  Baldwin's  seat  was  vacant,  whereas  it  was  Judge  Thomp 
son's;  that  Mr.  Binney  had  gone  to  England  to  confer  with  Lord  Campbell  and 
secure  unpublished  Chancery  records  in  regard  to  charities;  and  that  Mr.  Ser 
geant's  argument  preceded  Mr.  Binney's. 

18  Mr.  Wise  always  used  the  editorial  "  we." 

17  Seven  Decades  of  the  Union,  p.  219. 

231 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^ET.  64 


The  similarity  between  the  two  replies  to  the  offer  can 
scarcely  have  been  quite  as  complete  as  Mr.  Wise  states.  Mr. 
Binney  does  not  say  that  he  suggested  Mr,  Sergeant's  name, 
and  the  fact  that  he  thought  the  appointment  should  be  from 
New  York  makes  it  unlikely  that  he  did  so.  That  he  should 
have  confessed  to  having  once  "  aspired  to  judicial  position," 
and  to  having  had  his  "  ambition"  cured  by  disappointment, 
is  even  more  unlikely.  Mr.  Binney's  aspirations  and  ambi 
tions,  unlike  Mr.  Wise's,  were  not  towards  public  life  of  any 
kind.  The  most  that  he  was  likely  to  have  said  was  that  if 
he  had  ever  aspired  to  judicial  position,  the  fact  that  the 
request  of  the  bar  in  his  behalf,  in  1827,  had  been  denied 
would  have  sufficed  to  cure  such  an  ambition.  What  is  more 
likely,  however,  because  it  would  have  been  characteristic  of 
both  men,  is  that  Mr.  Binney  merely  stated  the  occurrences 
of  1827  without  comment,  and  that  Mr.  Wise  inferred  that 
there  must  have  been  both  aspiration  and  disappointment. 

Among  those  who  listened  to  Mr.  Binney's  argument 
was  General  Zachary  Taylor,  afterwards  President.  What 
he  thought  of  it  appears  from  a  letter  of  Mr.  Binney's 
written  in  1873  to  a  friend  who  had  been  reading  the  argu 
ment. 

The  argument  on  my  part  is  truly  presented,  but  I  have  been 
often  told  it  was  better  delivered.  It  may  be  so,  or  not  so.  Upon  the 
strength  of  having  heard  it,  I  really  believe  that  General  Taylor 
wished  to  make  me  his  Secretary  of  State,  as  I  was  informed  semi 
officially,  which  I  think  was  the  most  foolish  thing  I  ever  heard  of 
him,  unless  perhaps  it  was  his  excess  in  eating  cherries  and  ice-cream, 
which  killed  him.  But  he  was  a  very  honest  man,  though  perhaps 
no  better  judge  of  civilians  than  General  Grant  is  said  to  be. 

Under  ordinary  circumstances  the  thanks  of  the  City 
Councils  would  have  been  formally  given  to  its  successful 

232 


1844]  GIRARD    WILL    CASE 

defenders,  but  the  same  influence  which  had  sought  to  ex 
clude  Mr.  Sergeant  from  the  case  prevented  any  expression 
of  thanks  to  him,  and  no  distinction  could  be  made.  The 
trustees  of  the  Girard  Estate  gave  their  thanks,  however,  and 
had  the  argument  printed  in  full  for  permanent  preserva 
tion.  The  following  letter  states  one  of  the  motives  for  the 
printing : 

(To  the  Hon.  D.  A.  White.) 

BURLINGTON,  Aug.  26,  1844. 

I  was  very  happy  to  see  your  handwriting  once  more,  and  to 
read  your  kind  letter.  The  argument  was  not  printed  for  use  in 
your  quarter,  because  your  State  courts  are,  and  always  have  been, 
right  on  this  head,  and  so  I  am  certain  Judge  Story  would  have  been 
but  for  a  little  too  much  deference  to  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  a  great 
constitutional  lawyer  and  a  truly  great  man,  but  not  equal  in  all 
branches  of  the  law.18  The  "  barbarous  people"  in  Virginia  shew  no 
kindness  to  charities,  especially  religious  charities,  and  Maryland  has 
the  same  temper  in  her  courts,  though  her  people  have  a  much  better 
one.  The  hope  of  the  friends  who  suggested  the  printing  was  to  do 
some  good  in  those  quarters,  and  in  the  South  generally,  where  it  has 
not  yet  been  sufficiently  considered  how  much  the  virtue  and  dignity 
of  a  State  depend  on  protecting  charities  for  religion  and  letters,  as 
well  as  those  for  the  relief  of  the  poor  and  sick.  I  hope  they  will  all 
come  to  think  more  and  better  of  the  matter.  If  I  have  the  suffrages 
of  the  ladies,  it  is  a  great  deal  more  than  I  looked  for.  A  female 
friend,  who  does  me  the  favour  to  read  anything  she  sees  my  name 
to,  told  me,  after  trying  a  few  pages,  that  she  found  I  could  write 
as  unintelligibly  as  other  people,  when  it  suited  my  purpose. 

I  had  half  a  mind,  when  I  saw  that  you  were  to  discourse  to  the 
alumni,  to  start  right  off  with  the  wind  and  catch  a  part;  but  you 
must  know  that  swiftly  and  happily  as  I  may  travel  to  the  borders 
of  Massachusetts,  yet  as  soon  as  I  get  within,  and  near  my  old  haunts, 
the  breeze  all  dies  away,  and  my  sails  flap  languidly  against  the 


18  This  refers,  of  course,  to  Story's  opinion  in  the  Baptist  Association  case. 

233 


HORACE    BINNEY  [M-x.  64 

masts,  or  hang  motionless  and  dead.  Nearly  all  that  I  once  knew 
and  loved  there  are  gone;  and  when  an  exception  shews  itself  in  you 
or  Warren  and  perhaps  a  few  others,  it  only  compels  me  the  more  to 
mark  the  extent  of  the  vacuity.  This  is  one  of  the  discomforts  of 
revisiting  the  scenes  of  our  youth  in  old  age,  and  a  very  sharp  one 
to  me,  as  I  have  repeatedly  found.  The  old  familiar  faces  are  gone, 
and  there  has  been  no  opportunity  to  acquire  an  interest  in  those 
which  have  taken  their  place.  Your  discourse  will  be  printed,  however, 
and  I  shall  be  refreshed  by  the  light  of  your  countenance,  without 
feeling  so  keenly  that  my  other  lights  in  your  neighbourhood  have 
gone  out.  I  count  upon  your  sending  me  a  copy. 


234 


1844]  ANTI-CATHOLIC   RIOTS 


X 

ANTI-CATHOLIC    RIOTS—PENNSYLVANIA    RAILROAD 

CONTROVERSY 

1844-1849 

DURING  1844  occurred  the  worst  riots  that  Phila 
delphia  has  ever  known.  The  Native  American 
party  had  just  started  on  its  brief  career,  and  on 
May  3  an  open-air  meeting  for  local  organization  was  held 
in  the  Kensington  district.  The  foreign-born  element,  mostly 
Irish,  broke  up  the  meeting,  and  attacked  it  again  when  re 
convened  three  days  later.  Some  shots  were  fired  from 
houses,  a  youth  named  Shiffler  was  killed,  and  several  men 
wounded.  In  revenge  an  attack  was  made  on  a  Roman 
Catholic  school  known  as  "  the  nunnery,"  but  this  was  aban 
doned  after  two  men  had  been  killed  by  shots  from  the  build 
ing.  The  next  afternoon,  May  7,  the  Native  Americans  met 
in  the  State-House  yard,  adopted  denunciatory  resolutions, 
and  marched  to  Kensington  to  hoist  a  flag  where  Shiffler  had 
fallen.  Being  fired  on  from  the  Hibernia  Hose-House,  they 
broke  into  and  burned  the  building,  and  did  nothing  to  check 
the  spread  of  the  flames.  During  the  conflagration  some  of 
the  crowd  were  killed  and  others  wounded  by  shots  from 
houses.  Finally  the  militia  restored  some  degree  of  order, 
and  the  fire  was  put  out,  but  only  after  about  thirty  houses 
had  been  burned.  Most  of  the  troops  were  withdrawn  the 
next  day,  whereupon  more  fires  broke  out,  destroying  "  the 
nunnery"  and  St.  Michael's  Church  and  adjoining  buildings. 
The  return  of  the  troops  ended  the  riot  in  that  particular 

235 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^BT.  64 


district,  but  disturbances  broke  out  in  the  city  itself.  While 
the  mayor  and  police  were  trying  to  pacify  a  mob  in  front 
of  St.  Augustine's  Church,  on  Fourth  Street  below  Vine 
Street,  it  was  entered,  and  totally  destroyed  by  fire.  Strong 
guards  of  troops  saved  the  other  Roman  Catholic  churches, 
the  United  States  marines  being  posted  at  St.  Mary's,  a  few 
doors  from  Mr.  Binney's  house. 

At  that  time  the  police  force  was  small  and  inefficiently 
organized,  the  city  and  the  districts  having  each  its  separate 
force;  while  as  there  was  no  riot  act  the  local  authorities 
shrank  from  any  effective  use  of  troops,  and,  in  fact,  showed 
no  capacity  to  deal  properly  with  the  situation.  Mr.  Binney, 
however,  presumed  that  the  riot  would  be  speedily  suppressed, 
and  although  from  his  door-steps  he  watched  the  flames  at 
St.  Augustine's,  not  half  a  mile  away,  and  his  own  house  was 
just  between  two  other  Roman  Catholic  churches,  he  saw  no 
reason  for  excitement  or  fear.  Great  was  his  surprise,  there 
fore,  the  next  morning,  to  learn  that  nothing  had  been  done. 

"  Upon  descending  from  my  early  breakfast,"  he  wrote, 
"  I  found  Peter  McCall  in  my  office,  who  told  me  that  I  was 
desired  to  come  to  the  Council  chamber  as  soon  as  possible; 
and  upon  my  inquiring  the  reason,  he  informed  me  that  the 
city  was  in  great  disorder  and  agitation  from  the  events  of 
last  night,  and  that  I  was  wanted  to  advise  upon  the  proper 
measures  for  the  occasion.  I  replied  to  him  that  I  would  not 
go,  that  the  men  in  authority  were  the  men  to  take  the  re 
sponsibility  of  the  proper  measures,  and  I  presumed  that  they 
had  already  done  it.  There  were  enough  of  them,  and  as  they 
held  office  it  was  to  be  hoped  they  were  fit  for  it.  To  this  he 
rejoined  that  I  must  go,  that  he  had  been  deputed  specially 
to  bring  me  up,  and  that  nothing  had  been  done  ;  on  the  con 
trary,  that  the  authorities  had  been  in  session  during  the  night, 
and  instead  of  doing  anything,  appeared  to  be  stupefied. 

236 


1844]  ANTI-CATHOLIC   RIOTS 

He  then  gave  me  the  details  of  the  night  as  he  had  learned 
them.  The  mob  had  triumphed.  The  military  had  been 
ordered  to  retire  to  a  neighbouring  street  to  wait  for  orders, 
and  instead  of  being  called  upon  to  disperse  the  mob,  which 
they  could  easily  have  done,  .  .  .  they  remained  in  shame 
and  indignation  within  two  hundred  feet,  while  the  civil  au 
thorities,  from  mere  apprehension  of  taking  life,  had  refused 
to  call  on  them,  but  stood  quietly  by  to  see  the  church  burn 
down  and  the  mob  depart  with  cheers  and  menaces  of  further 
destruction.  .  .  .  Mr.  McCall  told  me  that  everything  de 
pended  upon  my  coming,  and  that  he  would  not  return  with 
out  me.  I  asked  him  to  request  Mr.  Sergeant  to  be  present 
in  the  Council  chamber,  and  said  I  would  follow  without 
delay. 

"  I  shall  never  forget  the  appearance  of  the  Council 
chamber  when  I  entered  it.  There  were  perhaps  five  and 
twenty  in  the  chamber.  Mr.  Meredith,  the  president  of  the 
Select  Council,  was  there,  the  Attorney-General,  Mr.  Josiah 
Randall,  and  some  others.  I  never  saw  a  body  of  more 
unresolved  men.  One  or  two  of  them  had  countenances  a 
little  below  this.  They  looked  as  if  they  were  excessively 
puzzled.  I  believe  there  was  no  formal  organization  of  the 
meeting,  but  I  started  some  irregular  talk  by  asking  whether 
any  person  had  anything  to  suggest  or  to  say  in  regard  to 
the  occasion  of  the  meeting.  The  Attorney-General  and  one 
or  two  others  said  a  word  or  two,  which  looked  to  getting 
assistance  elsewhere,  and  to  the  responsibility  of  meeting  the 
violence  of  the  mob  in  the  only  way  effectually.  I  replied 
that  assistance  from  other  quarters  might  be  very  useful,  but 
that  if  we  did  not  mean  to  be  unworthy  of  it  we  must  assist 
ourselves  immediately;  and  that  as  to  the  responsibility  of  re 
sisting  a  mob  in  the  very  degree,  however  severe  and  extreme, 
which  their  designs  and  violence  made  necessary,  I  had  as 

237 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Bx.  64 

little  hesitation  about  encountering  it  as  I  had  [doubt]  of  the 
ability  of  the  citizens  with  their  own  hands  to  make  the  re 
sistance  effectual.  It  was  immediately  moved  by  some  one 
to  appoint  a  committee  to  prepare  resolutions  to  be  submitted 
to  a  town  meeting,  which  I  then  for  the  first  time  heard  was 
to  meet  in  the  State-House  [yard]  at  ten  o'clock,  it  being 
now  about  half -after  nine.  The  committee  was  appointed, 
myself  as  chairman,  and  we  immediately  retired  to  a  com 
mittee  room,  two  or  three  of  my  friends,  as  I  passed  along, 
saying  that  the  meeting  would  agree  to  anything  I  would 
propose.  The  resolutions  which  I  drew  up  were  short  and 
plain;  they  did  not  ask  for  any  help  but  from  ourselves; 
they  recommended  the  immediate  enrolling  of  the  citizens 
in  each  ward  under  the  command  of  the  civil  authority  of 
the  ward;  and  they  asserted  the  legal  right,  for  the  protec 
tion  of  property  and  life,  to  resist  and  to  defeat  the  mob  by 
the  use  of  any  degree  of  force  that  was  necessary  for  this 
purpose. 

"  The  resolutions  were  adopted  at  once,  nem.  con.,  with 
out  a  word  of  discussion  or  remark,  and  I  was  appointed  to 
present  them  to  the  public  meeting.  The  assemblage  in  the 
Square  was  large,  but  extremely  quiet,  and  I  spoke  ten  min 
utes.  The  resolutions  were  read  and  adopted  with  hearty 
cheers,  and  in  a  moment  the  whole  expression  of  the  meeting 
was  changed.  All  looked  as  if  the  right  thing  had  been 
suggested  at  the  right  time,  and  all  departed  to  put  the 
measure  at  once  into  execution  in  the  wards.  Before  the 
evening  of  the  day  arrived  the  city  was  safe,  at  least  for  that 
time.  The  comprehensive  declarations  of  the  resolutions, 
which  did  not  speak  daggers  nor  guns,  but  very  plainly  looked 
them,  led  to  companies  in  military  uniform,  under  military 
command;  but  in  the  first  instance  the  young  men,  in  their 
citizens'  dress,  became  an  effective  police,  guarded  the  ave- 


1844]  ANTI-CATHOLIC    RIOTS 

nues  to  the  Catholic  churches,  and  had  the  military  at  their 
backs  to  support  them  in  case  of  need.1 

The  Fourth  of  July  was  followed  by  riots  in  the  district 
of  South wark.  The  local  authorities  having  found  a  few 
muskets  in  the  church  of  St.  Philip  Neri,  a  mob  threatened 
the  building  and  finally  broke  into  it,  besides  maltreating  the 
members  of  an  Irish  military  company,  who  had  been  sent  to 
defend  it.  On  the  evening  of  July  6  there  was  a  lively 
skirmish  between  the  troops  and  the  mob,  who  had  some 
muskets  and  two  4-pounder  cannon.  Men  were  killed  and 
wounded  on  both  sides,  but  the  mob  was  ultimately  driven 
back  and  the  cannon  captured. 

The  next  day  the  sheriff  put  a  civil  posse  in  charge  of 
the  church,  and  the  troops  were  withdrawn.  The  fighting 
was  not  renewed,  but  a  very  dangerous  feeling  of  sympathy 
for  the  rioters  who  had  suffered,  and  of  condemnation  of  the 
troops,  began  to  show  itself,  so  that  even  the  arrival  of  the 
governor,  and  of  troops  from  other  counties,  as  well  as  the 
promise  of  regulars,  did  not  suffice  to  assure  the  maintenance 
of  order.  It  was  evident  that  there  must  be  some  demonstra 
tion  of  public  opinion  on  the  side  of  the  authorities,  or  the 
mob  might  eventually  triumph.  On  the  morning  of  the  10th 


1 "  The  Hon.  Horace  Binney  came  forward  and  proposed  a  series  of  resolu 
tions,  which  are  subjoined,  with  some  remarks  calculated  to  throw  light  upon  the 
duty  of  executive  officers  and  the  rights  of  citizens. 

"Mr.  Binney  deplored  the  wretched  state  into  which  the  city  and  districts 
had  been  thrown,  and  explained  the  law  which  has  a  bearing  upon  the  duty  of 
those  who  are  conservers  of  the  public  peace, — the  gist  of  which  is,  that  in  attempt 
ing  to  preserve  or  restore  the  public  peace,  the  proper  officer  has  a  right,  and  is, 
therefore,  bound  to  use  force  proportionate  to  the  force  of  the  disorganizer.  In 
other  words,  Mr.  Binney  gave  the  idea,  in  which  others  concurred,  that  a  mob 
ought  to  be  put  down,  and  the  lives  and  property  of  citizens  made  secure  to  them; 
and,  consequently,  those  who  before  had  doubts  about  the  right  of  the  civil  author 
ity  to  use  proportionate  and  efficient  means  to  preserve  order,  became  satisfied." 
(United  States  Gazette,  May  10,  1844.) 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Ex.  64 

there  was  a  meeting  at  Evans's  Hotel,2  when  it  was  agreed 
that  the  citizens  should  express  to  the  governor  their  full  and 
decided  approval  of  the  conduct  of  the  military.  The  com 
mittee  in  charge  of  the  proposed  address  turned  instinctively 
to  Mr.  Binney,  who  drew  it  up  at  once,  so  as  to  have  it  imme 
diately  printed  and  circulated  for  signature.  The  follow 
ing  passages  illustrate  the  general  tone  of  the  paper: 

They  [the  military]  are  all  of  them  citizens,  performing  the 
highest  duty  that  a  citizen  can  be  called  upon  to  perform, — the  duty 
of  perilling  their  lives  in  defence  of  the  laws  and  the  Constitution, 
which  they  have  voluntarily  adopted  for  their  government.  ...  In 
the  performance  of  this  duty,  which  was  no  more  their  duty  than 
ours,  and  in  the  performance  of  which  they  were  citizens  and  only 
citizens,  using  the  lawful  force  which  unlawful  force  made  necessary, 
their  blood  has  been  shed  and  the  lives  of  some  of  them  laid  down 
upon  the  spot  which  by  the  command  of  the  civil  authority  it  was 
their  duty  to  defend.  .  .  . 

In  offering  this  individual  testimony  to  the  civil  officers  and 
uniformed  corps  of  the  State,  the  county,  and  the  city,  we  declare 
to  your  Excellency  that  we  have  no  other  object  upon  earth  than 
to  give  confidence  to  public  and  private  virtue  in  a  crisis  which  de 
mands  them  both  in  the  highest  degree;  and  to  declare  our  ac 
knowledgment  of  the  great  truth  upon  which  all  government,  and 
republican  government  especially,  rests,  that  obedience,  implicit,  un 
hesitating,  and  unquestioning  obedience  is  due  to  the  law,  while  it  is 
the  law,  and  that  the  life  and  property  of  every  citizen  should  be 
freely  offered  in  its  support.  If  any  one  has  done  wrong  on  the  side 
of  the  law,  let  peace  and  order  be  restored  and  the  law  will  judge 
her  servants  as  impartially  as  she  will  judge  her  enemies.  In  the 
mean  time  ...  let  confidence  be  given  to  the  servants  of  the  law 
until  its  enemies  are  suppressed. 


2  The  report  of  this  meeting  shows  that  Mr.  Binney's  oldest  son  was  one  of 
those  most  concerned  in  it. 

240 


1844]  ANTI-CATHOLIC   RIOTS 

The  address,  having  been  signed  by  a  large  number  of 
citizens,  was  presented  to  the  governor  the  next  day  at  Inde 
pendence  Hall,  and  produced  an  excellent  effect.  It  defi 
nitely  arrayed  all  respectable  people  on  the  side  of  order, 
and  no  further  rioting  was  attempted. 

The  fundamental  difficulty  of  the  authorities  in  dealing 
with  the  mobs  was  due  to  the  lack  of  any  statute  definitely 
authorizing  the  use  of  whatever  degree  of  force  the  circum 
stances  required.  Very  resolute  men  would  not  have  hesi 
tated  to  use  such  force  at  once,  on  general  legal  principles, 
but  such  men  were  not  in  office  in  Philadelphia  in  1844,  and 
are  rarely  in  public  office  at  any  time.  To  guard  against 
lawless  outbreaks  in  the  future,  some  legislation  was  clearly 
required;  but  opinion  was  divided  as  to  whether  it  should 
be  limited  to  police  matters  and  the  prompt  suppression  of 
riots,  or  should  involve  a  complete  reorganization  of  the 
municipal  governments  in  Philadelphia  County.  The  advo 
cates  of  consolidation  prepared  a  bill  and  memorial  for  sub 
mission  to  the  Legislature;  while  at  an  anti-consolidation 
meeting,  held  on  December  28,  1844,  Mr.  Binney  was  ap 
pointed  on  a  committee  to  prepare  a  bill  relating  to  the  police 
and  the  maintenance  of  order.  Not  unnaturally,  the  actual 
drafting  of  the  bill  was  left  to  him,  and  it  ultimately  became 
law  as  the  Act  of  April  12, 1845.3  Those  parts  of  the  statute 
which  related  to  the  police  were  superseded  when  consolida 
tion  was  finally  effected,  nine  years  later,  but  the  sections  in 
regard  to  riots  are  substantially  the  same  to-day  as  when  Mr. 
Binney  drew  them.  While  they  provide  unequivocally  for 
all  measures  essential  to  the  preservation  of  the  peace,  they 
are,  and  were  intended  by  their  author  to  be,  a  means  of  pre 
serving  life,  even  the  life  of  rioters,  rather  than  of  taking  it 


8  P.  L.,  380. 
16  241 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^BT.  64 


away.  It  is  significant  that  since  their  enactment  nothing 
that  can  properly  be  called  a  riot  has  ever  occurred  in  Phila 
delphia. 

During  the  session  of  the  General  Convention  of  the 
Episcopal  Church  in  the  autumn  of  1844,  Bishop  H.  U.  On- 
derdonk,  of  Pennsylvania,  communicated  to  the  House  of 
Bishops  his  wish  to  resign  the  jurisdiction  of  the  diocese,  and 
also  submitted  himself  to  the  judgment  of  the  House  upon 
a  written  acknowledgment  of  excessive  use  of  liquor.  He 
had  acquired  the  habit  through  resorting  to  stimulants  to 
enable  him  to  perform  his  very  laborious  duties,  but  while 
he  had  stopped  their  use  altogether  as  soon  as  he  realized  the 
deleterious  effects,  this  was  not  until  his  conduct  had  become 
the  subject  of  censure,  based  somewhat  on  exaggerated  re 
ports.  Mr.  Binney  had  always  esteemed  the  bishop  very 
highly,  and  held  that  he  had  been  imprudent,  but  perfectly 
blameless  in  intention,  and  that,  having  resolved  to  give  no 
cause  for  scandal  in  the  future,  he  should  be  dealt  with  in  a 
Christian  and  forbearing  spirit,  so  as  to  encourage  the  fulfil 
ment  of  his  resolution.  Unfortunately  many  of  the  clergy 
of  the  diocese  took  a  different  view,  and  the  bishop  was  sub 
jected  to  a  very  extraordinary  and  bitter  persecution,  while 
the  House  of  Bishops  not  merely  accepted  the  resignation 
of  jurisdiction,  but  imposed  the  crushing  sentence  of  indefi 
nite  suspension  from  all  episcopal  functions  whatever,  and 
from  all  public  exercise  of  the  priestly  office. 

Until  shortly  before  the  meeting  of  the  Convention  Mr. 
Binney  had  not  been  one  of  the  bishop's  advisers,  and,  in 
fact,  had  cautioned  him  against  the  advisers  whom  he  had 
selected;  but  when  the  bishop  found  himself  assailed  by  his 
supposed  friends,  he  turned  to  Mr.  Binney  for  help,  which 
was  freely  given  and  never  subsequently  withdrawn.  Hold 
ing  that  the  truth  could  not  be  established,  nor  a  just  conclu- 

242 


1844]        BISHOP    ONDERDONK'S    CASE 

sion  upon  the  whole  matter  reached,  without  a  fair  trial, 
Mr.  Binney  advised  against  both  the  resignation  and  the 
acknowledgment  of  unworthiness,  but  although,  by  the  per 
suasion  of  others,  this  advice  was  rejected,  his  loyalty  to  the 
bishop  did  not  fail.  Ultimately,  as  will  be  seen  later  on,  he 
aided  him  to  some  purpose,  but  for  the  time  he  could  do 
nothing  except  manifest  his  disapproval  by  withdrawing 
from  all  connection  with  the  administration  of  the  affairs 
of  the  Church.  Believing  that  the  sentence  was,  in  its  severity, 
utterly  disproportionate  to  the  offence,  and,  in  its  unlimited 
character,  a  violation  of  ecclesiastical  law,  he  ceased  to  be  a 
delegate  to  the  Diocesan  Convention,  whose  original  action 
had  led  to  the  result,  and  even  resigned  from  the  vestry  of 
his  parish  church. 

Towards  the  close  of  1845  a  number  of  the  leading  busi 
ness  men  of  Philadelphia  began  a  movement  for  the  con 
struction  of  a  railroad  from  Harrisburg  to  Pittsburg.  so  as 
to  connect  Philadelphia  directly  by  rail  with  the  rapidly 
developing  country  to  the  west  of  the  Alleghanies.  That 
such  a  road  would  benefit  the  business  interests  of  Phila 
delphia  was  manifest ;  that  it  would  be  directly  profitable  in 
itself  was  less  certain,  though  perhaps  reasonably  so;  but  in 
any  event  the  enterprise  required  what  was  for  those  days  a 
very  large  capital.  A  committee  of  the  promoters  came  to 
Mr.  Binney  and  explained  the  details  of  the  project  and  the 
advantages  which  the  city  would  derive  from  its  accomplish 
ment.  He  fully  realized  these  advantages  and  declared  his 
readiness  to  subscribe  to  the  stock  of  the  proposed  railroad 
company,  but  found  that  something  more  was  wanted  of  him 
than  individual  financial  support.  The  promoters  realized 
that  it  would  be  very  difficult  to  secure  enough  subscriptions 
Unless  they  could  arouse  an  unusual  interest  in  the  project 
i  (what  nowadays  would  be  called  a  "  boom")  throughout  the 

243 


HORACE    BINNEY  [Mv.  65-66 

city  and  the  State.  To  this  end  they  proposed  calling  a 
"  town-meeting,"  at  which  they  wished  Mr.  Binney  to  take 
a  prominent  part.  He  objected  that  such  a  meeting  might 
not  realize  their  expectations,  while,  if  it  did,  the  force  of  the 
public  opinion  thereby  manufactured  would  tend  to  practi 
cally  compel  many  people  to  join  in  the  scheme  contrary  to 
their  own  wishes  or  judgment.  He  held  that  the  building 
of  the  railroad  was  a  plain  business  proposition,  to  be  con 
sidered  calmly,  and  in  which  every  man  was  entitled  to  join 
or  not,  as  he  might  see  fit,  without  being  in  any  way  subject 
to  criticism  for  refusing.  The  committee  did  not  adopt  this 
view,  and  a  town-meeting  was  held  on  December  11.  Enthu 
siastic  speeches  were  made  and  delegates  were  appointed  to 
secure  a  charter  and  enlist  general  support  for  the  enterprise. 
The  Legislature  was  applied  to,  and  on  April  13,  1846,  a  bill 
to  incorporate  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  became  a  law. 

By  this  time  the  promoters  realized,  or  at  least  saw  fit  to 
acknowledge,  that  all  the  enthusiasm  they  could  arouse  would 
not  suffice  to  induce  private  individuals  or  business  corpora 
tions  to  unloose  their  purse-strings  sufficiently  to  subscribe 
the  requisite  capital,  and  they  proceeded  to  take  a  further 
step.  A  second  town-meeting  was  held  April  27,  and  resolu 
tions  were  adopted  recommending  to  the  Councils  of  Phila 
delphia  and  to  the  commissioners  of  the  various  incorporated 
districts  in  the  county  to  subscribe  to  the  stock  of  the  new 
company.  Such  a  subscription  meant  necessarily  that  the 
city  should  borrow  the  money,  and  should  levy  taxes  to  pay 
interest  on  this  increased  debt,  except  in  so  far  as  dividends 
upon  the  stock  might  ultimately  cover  such  interest.  Mr. 
Binney  considered  that  the  city  had  no  power  to  incur  debt 
for  such  a  purpose,  that  even  if  empowered,  it  could  not 
wisely  or  properly  make  such  a  use  of  its  credit,  and  that 
the  attempt  to  overawe  and  compel  the  Councils  to  make  the 

244 


1845-46]   PENNSYLVANIA  R.  R.  SUBSCRIPTION 

subscription,  by  stirring  up  a  popular  feeling  on  the  subject, 
was  a  gross  outrage,  all  the  more  to  be  condemned  because 
the  leaders  in  the  campaign  of  coercion  were  men  who  stood 
high  in  the  community  and  should  not  have  condescended  to 
use  such  methods.  For  a  time,  however,  he  kept  these 
opinions  to  himself. 

The  stock-books  were  opened  on  June  22,  and  the  com 
paratively  meagre  subscriptions  showed  either  that  public 
enthusiasm  was  not  the  same  thing  as  public  confidence,  or 
else  that  the  proposal  to  make  the  city  and  other  public  cor 
porations  bear  a  large  part  of  the  responsibility  had  destroyed 
the  stimulus  to  private  enterprise.  A  resolution  authorizing 
the  mayor  to  subscribe  in  the  name  of  the  city  for  fifty 
thousand  shares  ($2,500,000)  was  introduced  in  Councils, 
and  its  adoption  recommended  by  a  committee  of  both 
branches,  but  was  lost  on  July  16  in  the  Common  Council 
by  a  tie  vote.  Mr.  Binney's  oldest  son,  then  a  member  of 
the  Common  Council,  took  a  leading  part  in  opposing  the 
subscription,  but  without  any  consultation  with  his  father 
whatever. 

In  his  argument  in  the  Girard  Will  case,  when  speaking 
of  the  power  of  the  city  to  administer  the  trust  created  by 
the  will,  Mr.  Binney  had  said,  "  The  city  of  Philadelphia  is 
a  great  commonwealth;  and  the  powers  of  the  corporation, 
for  her  good  and  the  good  of  her  citizens,  are  under  no  re 
straint  but  that  of  not  violating  the  constitution  and  laws 
of  the  State,"  and  he  had  cited  the  provisions  of  the  charter 
of  1789  authorizing  ordinances,  etc.,  "  necessary  or  conve 
nient  for  the  government  and  welfare  of  the  said  city." 
Some  minds  are  so  constituted  as  to  see  no  distinction  between 
the  administration  of  property  given  to  a  city  for  the  benefit 
of  a  class  of  the  inhabitants  and  the  borrowing  money  and 
levying  taxes  in  order  to  join  in  a  great  business  enterprise 

245 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Bx.  66 

like  a  railroad  stretching  across  a  State;  and  accordingly 
Messrs.  Thomas  I.  Wharton  and  Thomas  M.  Pettit,  in  an 
opinion  dated  June  30,  1846,  and  published  on  July  4,  cited 
Mr.  Binney's  language  in  the  Girard  Will  case  argument  in 
support  of  their  proposition  that  the  city  had  the  power  to 
make  the  desired  subscription.  Mr.  Sergeant's  note  of  con 
currence,  appended  to  the  opinion,  was  a  great  surprise  to 
Mr.  Binney,  but  he  felt  convinced  that  Mr.  Sergeant  had 
not  examined  into  the  matter  with  his  usual  thoroughness.  A 
writer  in  the  United  States  Gazette  of  July  8,  using  the  nom 
de  plume  "  A  Voter,"  protested  against  the  perversion  of 
Mr.  Binney's  argument,  while  on  the  10th  some  one,  writing 
as  "  Many  Voters,"  insisted  that  the  argument  covered  the 
case.  "  A  Voter"  then  replied  at  greater  length,  and  in  the 
course  of  a  rejoinder  "  Many  Voters"  said,  "  I  have  a  right 
to  assume,  if  not  to  infer,  from  these  premises  that  the  prin 
ciples  of  the  certificate  submitted  to  Councils  unites  (sic)  in 
its  favour  the  name  of  Horace  Binney  to  those  of  John  Ser 
geant,  Judge  Pettit,  and  T.  I.  Wharton."  On  the  17th  a 
third  anonymous  writer  in  the  Gazette  denied  the  propriety 
of  the  inference,  and  said  that  Mr.  Binney's  opinion  had 
better  be  asked  and  not  assumed. 

Some  persons  had  known  Mr.  Binney's  character  so  little 
as  to  suppose  that  he  was  himself  the  anonymous  "  Voter," 
but  he  set  the  matter  at  rest  by  a  letter,  published  in  the 
Gazette  of  the  18th,  intimating  that  he  was  rather  tired  of 
having  his  name  and  supposed  opinion  bandied  about  in  this 
way,  and  stating  positively  that  he  had  had  nothing,  directly 
or  indirectly,  to  do  with  anything  that  had  been  published 
in  regard  to  the  controversy.  He  added:  "I  have  my 
opinions,  it  is  true,  upon  the  questions  which  agitate  the  city, 
and  I  humbly  claim  the  right  to  hold  them;  but  with  any 
body,  except  one  member  of  the  profession  older  than  myself, 

246 


1846]     PENNSYLVANIA   R.  R.  SUBSCRIPTION 

I  do  not  think  that  I  have  held  altogether  five  minutes'  con 
versation  about  any  of  them." 

While  his  opinion  had  not  yet  been  expressed,  it  had  been 
formally  asked  in  regard  to  the  right  of  the  city  to  subscribe, 
and  had,  in  fact,  been  written,  for  it  is  dated  July  14,  but  the 
pamphlet  did  not  appear  until  a  few  days  later.  The  opinion 
contains  an  exhaustive  review  of  authorities,  concluding  as 
follows : 

This  doctrine  is  liberal  yet  reasonable,  giving  the  power  to  tax 
for  all  expenses  incident  to  corporate  duties,  but  denying  it  for  the 
expense  of  what  is  not  a  corporate  duty,  though  it  may  be  alleged 
by  the  majority  to  be  convenient  to  or  to  promote  the  welfare  of  the 
inhabitants.  If  the  taxing  power  of  the  corporation  can  be  carried 
beyond  this,  the  inhabitants  of  this  city  and  their  property  are  not 
under  the  protection  of  the  Legislature  of  the  State,  but  at  the  mercy 
of  a  majority  of  the  city  Councils  whenever  they  are  satisfied  by  a 
speculative  inquiry  that  the  money,  whenever  and  upon  whatever  ex 
pended,  will  promote  the  welfare  of  the  city. 

The  result  of  the  whole  is  that  the  subscribing,  the  borrowing, 
and  the  taxing,  being  none  of  them  incident  to  the  exercise  of  a  power 
for  the  government  of  the  city,  for  its  welfare,  cannot  lawfully  be 
exercised  by  the  Councils,  but  that  each  and  all  of  them,  though  ordi 
nances  be  passed  to  authorize  them,  will  be  without  any  lawful  author 
ity  whatever,  and  therefore  void.  To  this  opinion  I  have  come.  I 
may  be  wrong.  As  other  gentlemen  of  the  profession  differ  from 
me,  either  they  or  myself  must  be  wrong.  I  shall  bow  respectfully 
to  the  judicial  department  if  it  shall  reject  my  conclusion.  In  the 
mean  time  I  do  not  think  that  I  am  likely  to  reject  it  myself. 

When  the  result  of  the  vote  in  the  Common  Council  was 
announced,  one  of  the  newspapers  supporting  the  railroad 
significantly  remarked  that  "  this  will  probably  be  decisive 
until  after  the  October  election."  The  full  meaning  of  this 
remark  became  apparent  when  the  nominations  for  the  au- 

247 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  66 

tumn  election  were  made.  The  Whig  party  was  in  a  minority 
in  the  city,  but  it  could  reasonably  count  on  a  large  plurality 
of  the  votes,  as  the  opposition  to  it  was  divided  between  the 
Democratic  and  Native  American  parties,  and  in  this  par 
ticular  year  the  indignation  due  to  the  reduction  of  protective 
duties  by  the  Democratic  tariff  bill  was  such  as  to  assure  a 
Whig  victory  beyond  peradventure.  The  candidates  for 
Councils  were  voted  for  on  a  general  ticket  for  the  whole 
city,  and  when  the  Whig  nominations  were  announced  it  was 
realized  that  most  of  the  Whig  members  who  had  opposed 
the  subscription,  including  Horace  Binney,  Jr.,  had  not  been 
renominated,  their  places  on  the  ticket  being  taken  by  men 
who  were  believed  to  side  with  the  railroad.  That  this  was 
the  work  of  the  railroad  promoters  no  reasonable  man  could 
doubt,  although  the  move  was  partly  concealed  by  their  open 
advocacy  of  a  "  railroad  ticket,"  composed  of  candidates 
selected  from  the  tickets  of  the  three  regular  parties,  but 
chiefly  Whigs.  The  existence  of  a  ticket  avowedly  in  favour 
of  the  railroad  interests  would  naturally  tend  to  mislead  some 
voters  into  thinking  that  the  Whig  ticket  was  not  in  the  main 
a  "  railroad  ticket"  also. 

The  utilization  of  party  machinery  for  private  ends  was 
not  so  common  in  1846  as  now,  and  called  forth  an  indignant 
protest.  An  address  to  the  citizens  of  Philadelphia,  signed 
by  Mr.  Binney  and  sixty-eight  others,  all  of  them  men  who 
either  had  already  won  by  their  merits,  or  were  destined  ulti 
mately  to  win,  the  very  highest  standing  in  the  community, 
was  published  on  October  9.  It  began  with  this  statement: 

A  majority  of  the  ward  delegates,  elected  by  the  Whigs  in  the 
last  summer  to  select  candidates  for  the  coming  election,  deemed  it 
fit  to  make  their  selection  for  the  city  Councils  in  such  a  manner  as 
in  case  of  success  will  secure  a  majority  in  both  Councils  in  favour  of  a 

218 


1846]     PENNSYLVANIA   R.  R.  SUBSCRIPTION 

subscription  to  the  stock  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad.  Without 
any  instructions  to  this  effect  from  the  people  who  were  their  con 
stituents,  without  any  previous  general  notice  that  the  ward  elections 
for  delegates  were  to  turn  upon  this  distinction,  and  in  departure 
from  the  purpose  of  their  appointment,  which  was  to  select  candidates 
possessing  general  fitness  as  representatives  of  a  political  party  and 
as  guardians  of  the  city  interests,  they  have  rejected  and  selected 
with  an  exclusive  view  to  a  particular  local  measure.  As  far  as  party 
organization  can  attain  this  end,  they  have  closed  the  door  against  a 
free  expression  by  the  people  upon  this  momentous  subject,  and 
against  the  election  of  any  other  Councils  than  such  as  by  prear- 
rangement  will  cast  a  maj  ority  of  votes  in  favour  of  this  subscription ; 
and  if  the  candidates  thus  selected  by  the  Whig  delegates  shall  re 
ceive  the  votes  of  all  who  usually  vote  with  their  party,  and  the  party 
shall  have  its  usual  success,  the  subscription,  we  have  no  doubt,  will 
be  authorized  by  an  ordinance,  whether  the  city  have  lawful  authority 
to  make  it  or  not  and  whatever  may  be  the  consequences  of  such  a 
vote. 


After  a  review  of  the  railroad  movement,  and  of  the 
objections  to  a  subscription  by  the  city,  the  address  concluded 
by  recommending  a  ticket  composed  of  the  best  men  on  the 
three  regular  tickets,  men  who,  though  not  pledged  in  any 
way,  could  be  trusted  to  vote  conscientiously,  without  regard 
to  popular  clamour. 

As  Mr.  Binney's  name  heads  the  signatures  to  this  ad 
dress,  and  as  it  is  an  appeal  to  reason  and  fair  dealing,  not 
to  prejudice,  it  was  presumably  the  work  of  his  pen.  It  was 
met  by  a  numerously  signed  address  in  favour  of  the  sub 
scription,  denying  complicity  in  the  Whig  nominations, 
urging  voters  to  support  the  "  railroad  ticket"  already  re 
ferred  to,  and  alluding  to  the  opposition  to  lighting  the  city 
with  gas  when  that  project  was  first  started.  The  insinua 
tion  that  the  subscription  was  only  opposed  by  the  class  of 

249 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Ex.  66 

people  who  always  oppose  what  is  new,  without  regard  to 
its  advantages,  was  still  more  pointedly  made  by  a  writer  in 
the  United  States  Gazette  of  October  12,  signing  himself 
"  Clinton."  Referring  to  the  address  signed  by  Mr.  Binney, 
he  said, — 

A  more  singular  and  surprising  document  emanating  from  a 
respectable  source,  I  will  venture  to  say  has  seldom  been  addressed 
to  the  public.  I  very  much  mistake  its  destiny  if  it  does  not  shortly 
take  its  place  beside  the  Anti-Gas  and  other  non-improvement  remon 
strances  which  a  few  years  since  issued  from  the  same  distinguished 
source,  and  which  are  now  among  the  most  remarkable  literary  and 
politico-economical  curiosities  of  the  age. 

The  reference  to  "  the  same  distinguished  source"  was 
practically  an  assertion  that  Mr.  Binney  had  himself  been 
one  of  those  who  in  1833  had  got  up  the  "Anti-Gas"  remon 
strances  to  Councils.  This  covert  assertion  rather  took  the 
popular  fancy  and  gained  credence,  though  it  is  significant 
that  no  one  made  the  assertion  directly  and  publicly,  so  as  to 
give  Mr.  Binney  an  opportunity  of  meeting  it.  It  was,  how 
ever,  the  foundation  of  what  is  probably  the  general  belief 
of  Philadelphians  to  this  day,  to  say  nothing  of  those  wits 
in  other  places  for  whom  Philadelphia  often  serves  as  a 
target.  While  it  was  beneath  Mr.  Binney's  dignity  to  notice 
the  assertion  publicly,  the  following  letter  to  his  son,  dated 
October  12,  1846,  the  day  that  "  Clinton's"  letter  appeared, 
shows  the  truth  of  the  matter. 

MY  DEAR  HORACE, — 

If  a  memorial  against  gas  was  even  signed  by  me,  I  will  believe 
it  when  I  see  my  signature  and  not  before ;  but  altho'  I  have  probably 
given  more  offence  by  refusing  to  sign  memorials  than  almost  any 
other  man  in  the  city,  I  cannot  say  that  I  did  not  sign.  That  I  wrote 
the  memorial  or  promoted  it,  otherwise  than  possibly  by  signature, 
I  deny.  I  deny  it,  not  that  I  recollect  anything  about  it,  but  because 

250 


1846]     PENNSYLVANIA   R.  R.  SUBSCRIPTION 

I  do  not  believe  it  possible  that  such  a  fact,  if  it  existed,  should  have 
left  no  trace  whatever  on  my  memory.  I  have  not  the  slightest  recol 
lection  that  I  ever  was  opposed  to  the  measure  of  introducing  gas,  or 
even  thought  about  it.  If  this  is  the  greatest  lie  they  tell  about  me, 
don't  be  disturbed.  They  are  welcome  to  any  part  of  my  character 
that  they  can  take  away,  and  much  good  may  it  do  them.  I  hope  to 
keep  some  for  my  own  use,  in  spite  of  all  they  can  do. 

Affy.  Yrs, 

HOR:  BINNEY. 

P.  S. — I  recollect  well  that  (and  I  believe  it  was  while  I  was 
in  Congress)  I  especially  promoted  Mr.  Merrick's  mission  to  Europe 
to  examine  the  English  and  other  gas-works,  and  I  obtained  a  letter 
for  him  from  the  Department  of  State  to  promote  his  object.4 

The  denial  is  not  absolute  in  terms,  but  all  who  know 
Mr.  Binney's  strength  of  memory  and  habitual  cautiousness 
of  statement,  to  say  nothing  of  his  rigid  truthfulness,  must 
realize  that  "  Clinton's"  covert  assertion  is  in  effect  very  posi 
tively  denied.  To  the  end  of  his  long  life  Mr.  Binney's 
memory  was  one  of  his  strong  points,  and  this  letter  was 
written  when  he  was  not  yet  quite  sixty-seven,  and  less  than 
thirteen  years  after  the  anti-gas  petitions  were  circulated.  A 
less  cautious  man  would  have  given  an  out-and-out  denial, 
but  Mr.  Binney' s  guarded  language  carries  even  greater  con 
viction  with  it. 

To  return,  however,  to  the  matter  of  the  subscription. 
The  address  in  opposition  was  unheeded,  the  Whig  victory 
carried  with  it  the  election  of  the  "  slated"  Councilmen,  and 
in  November,  1846,  both  branches  of  the  new  Councils  voted 
for  the  subscription.  The  amount  subscribed,  $2,500,000, 
one-fourth  of  the  entire  stock  of  the  railroad  company  as  then 


4  The  publication  of  this  letter,  at  the  present  writer's  request,  in  the  Evening 
Bulletin  of  December  28,  1902,  has  probably  prevented  the  story  from  receiving 
much  attention  hereafter. 

251 


HORACE    BINNEY  [Mi.  66-68 

authorized,  was  subsequently  even  increased  to  $4,000,000. 
Still,  in  spite  of  the  positiveness  of  the  legal  advisers  of  the 
subscription,  those  concerned  in  the  undertaking  did  not 
really  feel  sure  of  their  ground,  and  as  soon  as  the  Legisla 
ture  met  in  1847  a  bill  was  introduced  expressly  authorizing 
municipal  corporations  to  subscribe  to  the  stock  of  the  com 
pany.  Hoping  that  the  subscription  might  not  be  persisted 
in  if  such  an  authorization  were  refused,  a  memorial,  written 
apparently  by  Mr.  Binney,  was  presented  to  the  Legislature 
on  January  26  against  the  proposed  bill.  Even  the  Harris- 
burg  correspondent  of  the  North  American,  a  paper 
avowedly  in  favour  of  the  subscription,  referred  to  this 
memorial  as  "  a  well -written  document,  and  its  arguments 
close  and  strong."  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  memorial  was  not 
actually  needed,  the  lower  house  having  rejected  the  bill  a 
few  days  before,  which  killed  it  for  that  session.  By  this 
time,  however,  the  railroad  promoters  had  come  to  regard  the 
subscription  as  a  matter  of  life  and  death  to  their  enterprise, 
and  it  was  actually  made  without  waiting  for  legislative 
authorization. 

In  this  matter  of  the  city's  subscription  Mr.  Binney  and 
those  who  stood  with  him  suffered  for  a  while  the  usual 
penalty  of  opponents  of  a  popular  measure,  being  laughed 
at  as  old  fogies  and  obstructionists ;  but  in  time  they  received 
the  almost  equally  usual  vindication  of  those  who  follow 
reason  and  judgment  as  against  popular  clamour,  a  vindica 
tion  which  may  be  read  in  opinions  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
in  the  statutes,  and  even  in  the  Constitution  of  Pennsylvania, 
but  which  is  probably  most  complete  to-day  in  the  view  which 
numbers  of  the  most  thoughtful  citizens  hold  in  regard  to 
the  results  of  the  steps  taken  in  1846. 

The  vindication  of  Mr.  Binney's  view  of  the  legality  of 
subscription  came  speedily.  Among  those  who  controverted 

252 


1846-48]  PENNSYLVANIA  R.  R.  SUBSCRIPTION 

his  opinion  was  the  Hon.  Thomas  Sergeant,5  a  justice  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State.  Oddly  enough,  Judge 
Sergeant  had  wholly  forgotten 6  that  in  May,  1839,  the  court 
of  which  he  was  then  a  member  had  decided  in  accordance 
with  Mr.  Binney's  view  in  McDermond  vs.  Kennedy,  an 
unreported  case.7  That  case  concerned  a  tax  levied  by  the 
borough  of  Newville  in  Cumberland  County  to  pay  a  sub 
scription  of  the  borough  towards  the  cost  of  bringing  a  rail 
road  near  the  town.  The  Common  Pleas  had  held  that  the 
power  of  the  borough  to  enact  rules,  ordinances,  etc.,  "  to 
promote  the  peace,  good  order,  benefit,  and  advantages  of 
the  said  borough,"  referred  to  corporate  rights  and  duties 
only,  with  which  the  railroad  had  nothing  to  do,  and  the 
Supreme  Court  had  affirmed  the  decision.  As  soon  as  atten 
tion  was  called  to  this  decision,  the  authorization  which  had 
been  refused  in  1847  became  a  practical  necessity,  and  a 
more  pliant  Legislature  passed  the  act  of  March  27,  1848, 
authorizing  Alleghany  County,  the  cities  of  Pittsburg  and 
Alleghany,  and  the  municipal  corporations  in  Philadelphia 
County,  and  retroactively  authorizing  the  city  of  Philadel 
phia  to  subscribe  to  the  stock  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad 
Company,  to  borrow  the  money  to  pay  the  amount  subscribed, 
and  to  provide  for  paying  the  principal  and  interest  of  the 
loans.  "  It  was  therefore  settled  that  the  original  subscrip 
tion  of  the  city  to  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company  was 
invalid."  8 

6  Judge  Sergeant's  opinion  was  published  in  the  United  States  Gazette  of 
November  16,  1846. 

8  Apparently  the  three  other  surviving  justices  had  forgotten  it  too,  as  none 
of  them  called  attention  to  it  at  that  time. 

1  Since  reported  in  Brewster,  332,  and  3  Clark,  490. 

8  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company  vs.  City  of  Philadelphia  (47  Pa.,  189, 
193).  In  Mr.  Binney's  opinion  the  act  of  1848  was  itself  an  unconstitutional 
violation  of  the  principle  of  equality  in  the  contributions  of  the  citizens  to  public 
burdens. 

253 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^T.  66-68 


Mr.  Binney's  position  as  to  policy  was  vindicated  as 
fully,  though  more  slowly.  From  time  to  time  for  several 
years  the  Legislature  authorized  Philadelphia  and  various 
counties  and  municipalities  to  subscribe  to  the  stock  of  cor 
porations  about  to  be  formed,  so  that  after  a  while  Phila 
delphia  held  "  five  millions  of  valuable  stock,  and  five  mil 
lions  of  utterly  worthless  stocks  in  various  railroad  companies, 
subscribed  under  a  great  outside  pressure  [precisely  the  con 
dition  which  Mr.  Binney  had  protested  against  in  1846]. 
The  evils  of  these  subscriptions  by  counties  and  municipal 
corporations  were  so  aggravated  that  it  became  necessary  to 
interfere  and  prevent  by  a  constitutional  prohibition  all 
future  pledges  of  municipal  faith  and  property  for  such 
purposes  under  the  sanction  of  the  Legislature,  who  alone 
possessed  the  power  to  grant  the  proper  authority."  9  Ac 
cordingly  in  1857  the  Constitution  was  amended  so  as  to 
provide  as  follows  : 

The  Legislature  shall  not  authorize  any  county,  city,  borough, 
township,  or  incorporated  district,  by  virtue  of  a  vote  of  its  citizens, 
or  otherwise,  to  become  a  stockholder  in  any  company,  association,  or 
corporation  ;  or  to  obtain  money  for,  or  loan  its  credit  to,  any  corpora 
tion,  association,  institution,  or  party. 

The  same  provision  with  slight  verbal  changes  is  found 
in  the  Constitution  now  in  force. 

The  worst  result  of  these  investments  in  railroad  stock 
by  Philadelphia  and  other  communities  in  the  State  was  not 
the  loss  of  many  millions  of  the  taxpayers'  money,  but  the 
close  association  and  alliance  thereby  created  between  certain 
powerful  corporations  and  the  various  municipal  govern- 


8  Pennsylvania   Railroad   Company  vs.   City  of   Philadelphia    (47   Pa.,   189, 
193). 

254 


1846-48]   PENNSYLVANIA  R.  R.  SUBSCRIPTION 

ments,  an  association  and  alliance  which  is  generally  thought 
to  be  closer  to-day  than  ever,  and  to  be  one  of  the  leading 
causes  of  the  misgovernment  long  so  manifest  throughout 
the  State,  and  especially  in  Philadelphia.  The  city  sold  its 
Pennsylvania  Railroad  stock  (at  a  profit,  it  is  true)  after 
some  thirty -five  years,  but  the  alliance  between  those  in  con 
trol  of  the  two  corporations  survived  the  sale.  Those  who 
attended  a  crowded  meeting  held  at  the  Academy  of  Music  in 
Philadelphia  on  February  4,  1890,  to  protest  against  the 
action  of  Councils,  under  the  influence  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Railroad,  in  blocking  the  improvements  which  rival  com 
panies  sought  permission  to  undertake,  may  recall  the  loud 
applause  which  greeted  a  leading  member  of  the  business 
community,  the  very  class  who  in  1846  had  demanded  the 
city's  subscription  to  the  stock  of  the  railroad,  when  he  de 
clared  that  time  had  proved  that  policy  to  have  been  a  mis 
take,  that  "  that  subscription  was  the  birth  of  a  railroad,  but 
the  death  of  our  city."  Mr.  Binney's  vindication  would  seem 
to  be  complete. 

While  Mr.  Binney  held  the  course  pursued  by  the  pro 
moters  of  the  railroad  company  to  be  unjust  and  dangerous, 
his  antagonism  was  in  no  sense  personal,  and  after  the  sub 
scription  had  been  legalized  they  were  very  anxious  to  have 
him  become  a  stockholder,  to  show  that  he  did  not  oppose  such 
an  important  business  enterprise.  He  replied  that  he  never 
had  opposed  the  railroad  except  as  regards  their  involving 
the  city  in  a  large  illegal  risk,  and  their  doing  so  by  the  force 
of  popular  clamour;  but  that  having  publicly  declared  his 
opinion  on  these  points,  which  he  held  to  be  matters  of  prin 
ciple,  he  could  not  consent  to  impair  the  force  of  his  example 
by  taking  a  single  share  of  stock  in  the  company,  and  he 
never  did. 

The  period  from  1844  to  1848  saw  the  annexation  of 

255 


HORACE    BINNEY  [MT.  67 

Texas  and  the  Mexican  War,  both  events  bringing  increased 
strength  to  the  slave  power.  Mr.  Binney  heartily  condemned 
both,  but  of  all  his  letters  written  at  that  time,  the  following 
is  almost  the  only  one  that  remains : 

(To  the  Hon.  D.  A.  White.) 

PHILADA.  Feb.  22,  1847. 

I  cannot  tell  you  what  pleasure  I  have  derived  from  your 
eulogy  upon  Pickering.  How  true  it  is  from  beginning  to  end !  How 
worthy  of  him,  how  like  him,  how  like  to  him,  how  exactly  the  thing 
which  those  who  knew  him  in  his  youth,  and  from  his  youth,  desired 
to  have !  It  has  taken  me  back  to  our  college  life,  and  brought  before 
me  almost  all  my  intercourse  with  him;  and  such  as  I  knew  him  to 
be,  such  he  ever  was  afterwards,  by  natural  and  perhaps  necessary 
development,  not  a  branch  of  a  twig  having  been  turned  from  its  true 
course  and  shape  by  the  flaws  of  life  which  distort  ill-rooted  men,  or 
by  the  affectation  which  would  bend  them  in  a  way  they're  not  in 
clined  to.  He  was  pure,  gentle,  affectionate,  social,  faithful,  wise, 
sober,  grave ;  a  companion  for  all  hours,  a  friend  for  all  occasions ; 
a  most  excellent  person,  apart  from  his  knowledge  and  literature. 
You  have  shown  him  in  all  his  virtues,  as  well  as  in  his  works.  How 
well  I  recollect  him,  how  truly  I  loved  him,  how  thoroughly  am  I 
delighted  and  satisfied  with  what  you  have  said  of  him ! 

Are  there  many  such  men  nowadays?  Are  there  any  such? 
Are  such  men  born;  do  they  germinate  in  this  century?  I  hope  so, 
with  my  whole  soul,  for  both  of  us  have  sons  who  have  come  into  this 
American  world  since  the  beginning  of  that  disastrous  twilight  which 
the  eclipse  of  old  Federalism  ushered  in.  May  they  not  be  dwarfed 
and  wilted  in  it,  like  the  poor  plants  in  a  cellar!  But  I  have  great," 
great  fears.  Such  men  as  Pickering,  and  those  who  were  best  reared 
in  his  day,  were  told  to  take  a  star  for  their  guide,  and  the  sky  was 
clear  enough  in  their  youth,  and  they  saw  it,  and  followed  it.  But  now 
the  skies  are  overcast,  and  instead  of  looking  upward  for  our  guide, 
we  look  into  each  other's  faces  to  get  our  cue,  and  shape  our  courses 
and  ends  by  the  smiles  or  frowns  that  we  see  there.  Instead  of  a 

256 


1847]  MEXICAN    WAR 

pure  and  true  nature  being  drawn  out  by  elevated  principle,  it  is 
twisted  and  bent  and  perverted  by  a  spirit  of  conformity  to  what  is 
about  us.  We  are  a  public-opinion-loving,  a  popularity-seeking  peo 
ple.  It  is  the  same  with  men  and  boys.  I  have  no  hopes  of  it.  The 
flight  is  too  low  and  too  irregular  for  my  augury.  It  is  a  comfort, 
however,  to  have  lived  a  cotemporary  of  so  fine  an  example  of  a  true 
light  truly  followed,  of  a  high  standard  amply  attained,  as  we  have 
had  in  the  case  of  our  college  friend,  of  your,  and  I  always  envied  you 
both  your  neighbourhood,  friend  of  a  whole  life. 

I  don't  know  if  you  look  to  Washington,  or  think  of  it,  or  of 
the  Mexican  War, — the  scorpion  No.  1  from  the  egg  of  Texas.  It's 
of  no  use.  But  without  thinking  of  either,  I  confess  to  the  comfort 
of  seeing  how  soon  the  bloody  instructions  have  returned  to  plague 
the  inventor.  They  cannot  "  trammel  up  the  consequence"  for  their 
souls,  and  I  suppose  that  we  may  thank  God  for  that,  without  any 
treason. 


In  April,  1848,  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Pennsylvania  in  Murphy  vs.  Hubert,10  to  the  effect  that  the 
Statute  of  Frauds  did  not  apply  to  trusts,  or  equitable  estates 
or  interests  in  lands,  attracted  Mr.  Binney's  attention,  Chief 
Justice  Gibson's  very  brief  opinion  having  been  shown  to  him 
in  manuscript  soon  after  it  was  delivered.  He  considered 
that  it  involved  a  misinterpretation  of  the  statute,  and  might 
have  very  serious  consequences  in  inducing  the  perpetration 
of  fraud  and  perjury  by  parol  declarations  of  trust.  In 
order  to  bring  about  a  reconsideration,  if  possible,  or  a  new 
statute  to  cover  the  breach  made  in  the  old  one,  he  published 
in  October  a  very  careful  review  of  the  law  upon  the  sub 
ject.  The  decision  was  not  reconsidered,  but  the  act  of  April 
22,  1856,  ultimately  extended  the  Statute  of  Frauds  to 
equitable  estates. 


10  7  Pa.,  420. 
17  257 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^ET.  69-70 


In  the  death  of  his  older  sister,  Mrs.  Wallace,  in  July, 
1849,  Mr.  Binney  suffered  a  loss  second  only  to  that  of  his 
daughter  many  years  before.  Companions  in  childhood  and 
youth,  both  of  them  mentally  gifted  to  a  high  degree,  they 
had  always  been  in  close  sympathy,  and  their  admiration  and 
love  were  reciprocal.  Another  sorrow  came  the  following 
month  in  the  death  of  Charles  Chauncey,  the  most  intimate 
of  all  Mr.  Binney's  friends  outside  of  his  own  family.  Their 
acquaintance,  begun  immediately  after  Mr.  Chauncey  came 
to  Philadelphia  from  Connecticut,  in  1798,  had  speedily 
ripened  into  warm  friendship  (possibly  all  the  sooner  from 
the  fact  that  Mr.  Binney,  having  returned  from  New  Eng 
land  less  than  a  year  before,  felt  himself  still  somewhat  of 
a  stranger)  ,  and  from  the  time  that  the  latter  found  his  place 
at  the  bar  they  were  associated  together  in  a  number  of  cases, 
and  opposed  in  perhaps  an  equal  number.  On  Mr.  Binney's 
side  the  friendship  was  based  more  on  regard  for  Mr.  Chaun- 
cey's  high  character  and  attainments  than  on  any  great  con 
geniality  of  temperament,  for  the  nature  and  points  of  view 
of  each  were  strongly  individual.  The  one  was  essentially  a 
Connecticut  man,  while  the  other  showed  unmistakably  his 
descent  from  the  men  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  Yet  the  friend 
ship  was  very  genuine,  and  during  more  than  fifty  years  had 
never  been  clouded  but  once,  when  an  explanation,  given  as 
frankly  as  it  had  been  sought,  speedily  cleared  matters  up. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  bar,  held  August  31,  Mr.  Binney 
was  the  chief  speaker,  although  it  was  with  difficulty  that  he 
could  bring  himself  to  dwell  publicly  upon  his  friend's  gentle 
and  honourable  character.  The  theme  was  almost  too  sacred 
for  him  to  touch,  even  before  his  brothers  of  the  bar. 


258 


1849-50]  RETIREMENT 

XI 

LIFE    IN    RETIREMENT— LITERARY    WORK 
1850-1859 

FOR  nearly  thirteen  years  Mr.  Binney  had  devoted 
himself  to  office  practice,  investigating  and  giving 
opinions  on  legal  questions,  and  this  work  had  in 
creased  in  volume  as  the  years  rolled  on.  In  the  spring  of 
1850  some  exceptionally  severe  work  brought  on  a  serious 
inflammation  of  the  eyes,  which  he  took  as  a  warning  to  give 
up  all  professional  labours  whatsoever.  From  this  time  on 
he  refused  to  undertake  any  such  work  except  where  the  re 
quest  was  based  on  some  special  claim  of  friendship,  and 
these  exceptions  were  gradually  brought  to  an  end  by  his 
declining  all  compensation.  He  had  no  intention  of  sinking 
into  a  life  of  indolence,  however,  pardonable  as  such  a  life 
might  have  been  at  his  age.  On  the  contrary,  as  far  as  his 
eyes  permitted  (and  in  time  they  substantially  recovered), 
he  kept  himself  fully  occupied,  but  free  to  read  or  write  what 
and  as  he  chose,  without  being  hampered  as  to  time  or  subject 
by  any  professional  responsibility.  He  rarely  now  appeared 
at  any  meeting  of  a  public  character,  but  all  important  public 
matters  received  his  careful  attention.  His  advice  was  given 
whenever  sought,  and  though  never  anxious  to  see  himself  in 
print,  he  made  his  opinions  publicly  known  whenever  he  felt 
it  incumbent  upon  him  to  do  so.  As  Sir  J.  T.  Coleridge  wrote 
of  him  in  1860,  he  was  contented,  or,  rather,  he  preferred  "  to 
enjoy  the  happiness  of  a  domestic  and  literary  retirement, 
exercising  only  that  influence  on  the  State — difficult  to  meas 
ure,  but  large  in  amount — which  almost  necessarily  attends 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  70 

the  great  and  excellent,  who,  living  without  office  or  profes 
sion,  seeking  no  distinction,  but  shunning  no  social  duty,  are 
ready  and  efficient  agents  for  good  to  all  within  their 
sphere."  1 

His  time  at  last  being  his  own,  so  far  as  any  man's  can 
be,  he  was  able  to  take  up  subjects  of  more  general  and  per 
manent  interest  than  the  legal  points  with  which  he  had  been 
so  long  concerned,  and  hence  to  this  later  period  of  his  life 
belong  most  of  his  printed  writings.  It  has  apparently  been 
thought  that  for  a  certain  time  his  mental  vigour  declined  to 
some  extent,  but  that  after  some  years  of  rest  he  ultimately 
regained  it  in  full.2  There  is  really  nothing  to  justify  any 
such  idea.  The  strength  and  brilliancy  of  his  mind  were  not 
even  temporarily  impaired  by  age,  but  after  1850  he  was  left 
free  to  follow  his  own  bent,  and  this  freedom  soon  bore  fruit 
of  a  kind  which  his  years  of  professional  labour  had  not  pro 
duced.  Not  all  of  this  fruit  was  given  to  the  public,  but  it 
is  a  fact  that  after  1850,  as  before,  he  continued  to  make  the 
most  of  himself  in  reading  and  writing,  merely  directing  his 
mind  to  other  channels  of  thought  than  those  which,  in  the 
main,  it  had  followed  previously. 

In  October,  1850,  the  Constitution  of  Pennsylvania  was 
still  further  changed  by  making  all  judicial  officers  elective. 
Mr.  Binney  had  been  expecting  this  change  ever  since  the 
tenure  of  good  behaviour  had  been  abolished  in  1838,  and  his 
expectation  that  this  system  would  prevail  throughout  the 
States  generally  has  also  been  fulfilled,  for  to-day  the  ju 
diciary  is  wholly  elective  in  thirty-five  States  (in  eighteen  of 


Quarterly  Review,  April,  1860. 

3  Hon.  Hampton  L.  Carson,  who  wrote  several  interesting  articles  on  Mr. 
Binney's  life  and  works  in  1892  for  the  Philadelphia  Times,  seems  to  have  had  this 
idea  when  he  referred  to  Mr.  Binney's  "  now  thoroughly  awakened  mind,"  and  to 
the  melting  of  "  the  frost  of  age  which  had  congealed  his  blood." 

260 


1850]  JUDICIAL    TENURE 

these  for  the  short  term  of  six  years  for  the  highest  court, 
and  in  two  for  even  less),  chosen  by  the  Legislature  in  two, 
partially  or  wholly  appointive  in  eight,  and  with  the  tenure 
of  good  behaviour  in  three  only.  New  Hampshire,  Mas 
sachusetts,  and  Rhode  Island  alone  have  the  distinction  of 
upholding  the  traditions  of  an  independent  judiciary,  and 
even  in  these  States  it  does  not  extend  to  justices  of  the 
peace. 

So  far  as  concerns  the  national  judiciary,  the  people  have 
fortunately  shown  that  they  possessed  a  greater  residuum  of 
conservatism  than  Mr.  Binney  anticipated,  or  at  least  that 
they  did  not  think  an  elective  judiciary  so  important  as  to 
warrant  an  attempt  to  overcome  the  practical  difficulties 
which  now  prevent  almost  any  change  in  the  Federal  Con 
stitution,  whether  wise  or  unwise.  His  own  expectation  in 
1850  was  that  whenever  three-fourths  of  the  States  had  estab 
lished  for  themselves  an  elective  judiciary,  holding  office  for 
a  term  of  years  only,  they  would  put  the  Federal  judges 
upon  the  same  basis,  and  this  expectation  was  certainly  not 
unreasonable,  in  view  of  the  many  constitutional  changes 
which  he  had  already  seen.  "  James  I.  and  James  II.,"  he 
wrote,  "  thought  that  every  judge  should  hold  his  office  at 
the  pleasure  of  the  crown.  All  despots  think  the  same  thing ; 
and  here  universally  the  majority  of  the  people  is  the  despot, 
more  absolute  than  any  James,  because  there  is  nobody  to 
confront  them.  When  constitutions  were  first  made  among 
us,  there  was  a  disposition  in  the  people  to  part  with  power 
to  their  representatives,  and  when  it  was  of  a  nature  not  to 
be  given  to  representatives,  nor  to  be  possessed  safely  by 
themselves,  they  were  disposed  to  tie  their  own  hands.  That 
day  has  gone  by.  The  day  has  come  in  which  the  people  de 
sire  to  reclaim  all  the  power  they  have  parted  with,  and  they 
will  do  it,  and  without  the  slightest  apprehension  that  they 

261 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^ET.  72 


will  not  use  it  all  for  the  public  good.  James  II.,  I  have 
no  doubt,  thought  the  same.  ...  I  would  cheerfully  give 
the  appointment  to  the  people  if  they  could  give  the  power 
away  from  themselves,  to  be  held  by  the  only  tenure  that 
reason  and  experience  sanction  for  the  security  of  liberty 
and  property,  the  tenure  of  good  behaviour;  but  the  tenure 
at  the  pleasure  of  the  appointing  power,  it  being  effectively 
the  supreme  power  in  the  State,  is  both  a  crime  and  a 
folly." 

Happily  the  final  change  which  Mr.  Binney  feared  is  far 
less  likely  now  than  it  seemed  half  a  century  ago,  and  it  is 
not  too  much  to  say  that  throughout  the  country  the  Federal 
judges,  as  a  rule,  stand  higher  in  public  esteem  than  those 
elected  by  the  people  themselves. 

In  April,  1852,  the  Philadelphia  Contributionship,  the 
oldest  fire  insurance  company  in  America  and  one  of  the 
oldest  in  the  world,  celebrated  its  hundredth  anniversary. 
Mr.  Binney,  who  had  been  a  director  from  1817  to  1819,  and 
continuously  since  1831,  and  was  then  the  chairman  of  the 
board,  delivered  an  address,  tracing  the  history  of  the  com 
pany  (which  began  with  an  insurance  for  £500  upon  the 
house  of  one  John  Smith,  and  a  hundred  years  later  insured 
$8,000,000  worth  of  buildings  and  had  accumulated  $700,000 
in  premiums)  and  reviewing  the  general  conditions  of  fire 
insurance  in  Europe  and  America  at  that  time.  His  object 
was  not  merely  to  show  the  extreme  prosperity  of  the  com 
pany  in  the  past,  but  to  give  its  members  something  to  think 
about  for  the  future.  He  pointed  out,  for  instance,  the  con 
nection  between  the  very  low  insurance  rates  of  Paris  and  the 
excellence  of  the  corps  of  Pompiers,  "  governed  by  one  au 
thority  over  all,  with  proper  subdivision  and  subordination." 
"  The  city  of  Philadelphia,"  he  added,  "  as  well  as  the  insur 
ance  companies,  should  ponder  this  important  fact."  The 

262 


1852]     CONTRIBUTIONSHIP    CENTENARY 

point  of  this  statement  needed  no  elaboration  for  his  hearers, 
for  the  one  serious  blot  on  the  city's  administration  at  that 
day  was  in  regard  to  the  extinguishment  of  fires,  which  was 
left  exclusively  to  volunteer  companies,  between  some  of 
whom  great  rivalry  and  even  bitter  feuds  existed,  so  that  a 
fire  was  often  the  occasion  of  a  bloody  fight  between  the  com 
panies  first  on  the  scene.3  A  suggestion  of  reform  may  be 
easily  read  between  the  lines. 

This  year  marked  Webster's  last  failure  to  secure  a  nomi 
nation  for  the  Presidency.  That  he  should  have  sought  it 
at  all  was  a  matter  of  deep  regret  to  Mr.  Binney,  as  the  next 
letter  indicates. 

(To  Hon.  D.  A.  White.) 

PHILADA.  Sept.  10,  1852. 

.  .  .  My  aspiration  for  Mr.  Webster  was,  at  one  time,  that 
he  should  raise  himself  to  the  regions  of  serene  air,  as  such  an  intellect 
could  have  raised  him,  "  above  the  smoke  and  stir  of  this  dim  spot," 
and  there  accompany  this  part  of  earth  in  its  revolution,  the  living 
oracle  of  the  principles  by  which  this  government  ought  to  be  admin 
istered,  without  condescending  to  party  rewards  or  turning  his  ear 
to  them.  If  he  had  abjured  the  Presidency  and  had  refused  all  robes 
but  those  of  the  great  Senator,  I  know  of  no  fame,  Greek  or  Roman, 
that  has  mounted  higher.  He  would  have  bound  around  him  all  the 
conservatism  of  the  country,  and,  without  direct  or  official  rule,  would 
have  checked  and  counterpoised  all  excessive  deviations  from  the  true 
orbit  of  the  Constitution.  And  my  fixed  faith,  after  forty  years' 
observation,  is  that  the  most  that  a  pure  and  wise  party  can  do  for  the 
country  is  to  become  a  check  and  counterpoise;  and  that  if  it  must 
also  have  office  and  direct  rule,  it  must  part  with  half  its  virtue  to 
obtain  them,  and  in  more  or  less  time  lose  all  that  can  distinguish  it 


3  The  influence  of  Mr.  Binney  and  other  progressive  citizens  was  steadily 
exerted  for  many  years  against  this  abuse,  which  was  at  length  reformed,  but 
unfortunately  not  to  the  extent  of  freeing  the  firemen  from  a  degrading  partisan 
servitude  to  political  bosses. 

263 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^ET.  72 


from  the  worst  competitor  that  takes  the  field  against  it.  Mr.  Web 
ster  has  seen  the  party  to  which  he  has  belonged  growing  less  and  less 
pure  for  twenty-five  years.  He  must  have  known  it  to  be  the  course 
and  tendency  of  all  such  parties  in  such  a  country.  Why  did  he  not 
involve  himself  in  his  virtue,  and  rise  above  the  exhalations  that  were 
about  him  ?  Is  it  that  he  is  wanting  in  some  of  the  small  qualities  that 
are  necessary  to  true  greatness  ?  I  do  not  ask  you  to  tell  me,  and  I  do 
not  want  to  know.  I  fear  he  has  not  taken  his  own  advice,  as  he 
ought  to  have  done,  upon  all  occasions,  or  that  his  adviser  is  not 
always  that  good  sense,  which  only,  Pope  says,  is  the  gift  of  Heaven, 
and,  though  no  science,  fairly  worth  the  seven.  I  would  not,  however, 
be  the  means  of  plucking  a  leaflet  from  the  wreath  his  great  powers 
have  won,  and  therefore  beg  you  to  burn  this  as  well  as  that* 

In  November  John  Sergeant  died,  the  last  of  Mr.  Bin- 
ney's  fellow-students  and  of  those  who  had  been  his  intimate 
friends,  with  whom  he  had  been  associated  in  many  legal 
victories,  including  the  last  and  greatest  of  them  all.  The 
intimacy  between  them  had  been  "  never  surpassed  between 
two  men,"  but  for  some  years  before  Mr.  Sergeant's  death 
it  had  wholly  ceased,  though  for  reasons  which  Mr.  Binney 
himself  never  fully  understood.  It  was  Mr.  Sergeant  who 
had  withdrawn  his  friendship,  not  Mr.  Binney.  Owing  to 
their  position  in  the  community,  the  severance  was  perfectly 
well  known,  but  at  the  bar  meeting  held  on  November  26  it 
was  felt  that  no  one  living  could  speak  of  Mr.  Sergeant  as 
understandingly  and  appreciatively  as  Mr.  Binney.  Con 
scious  of  no  wrong  towards  his  former  friend,  in  deed,  word, 
or  thought,  he  was  only  anxious  that,  as  the  reconciliation  he 
had  so  greatly  desired  was  no  longer  possible  on  earth,  the 
unfortunate  misunderstanding  should  be  shown  to  be  as 
nothing  in  comparison  with  the  long  friendship.  Accord- 


*  This  refers  to  a  previous  letter.    The  request  was  subsequently  revoked. 

264 


1852]       DEATH    OF    JOHN    SERGEANT 

ingly  he  closed  his  prefatory  remarks  with  these  significant 
words: 

I  knew  him  well;  I  respected  him  truly;  I  honoured  him  faith 
fully.  I  honoured  and  respected  him  to  the  end  of  his  life.  I  shall 
honour  and  respect  his  memory  to  the  end  of  my  own.  No  trivial 
incongruities  of  feeling  or  opinion,  no  misinterpretations,  however 
arising,  no  petty  gust,  no  cloud  of  a  hand's  breadth,  which  may  and 
will  chill  and  overcast  the  common  sky  of  the  truest  friends  in  a  life 
of  fifty-five  years,  ever  for  an  instant  disturbed  the  foundations  of 
my  regard  for  him,  or  even  reached  the  depths  in  which  they  were 
laid.  These  foundations  were  laid  upon  his  principles,  as  I  well  knew 
them  fifty  years  ago.  They  were  laid  deep  upon  that  sure  basis,  and 
they  were  beyond  the  reach  of  change  or  chance,  as  his  principles  were. 

Then  followed  a  thoroughly  sympathetic  review  of  Mr. 
Sergeant's  character  and  career,  concluding  as  a  valedictory 
to  the  bar. 

Mr.  Chairman,  and  gentlemen  of  the  bar,  it  has  pleased  God 
that  I  should  survive  my  two  contemporaries  of  more  than  half  a 
century, — Charles  Chauncey  and  John  Sergeant.  From  the  tenacity 
with  which  most  men  hold  to  life,  such  a  survivorship  may  seem  to 
be  desirable;  but  it  is  not  wisely  desirable  by  any  man,  for  it  cannot 
be  reverently  asked  of  Heaven.  .  .  .  Ask  it  not.  Ask  for  wisdom, 
and  length  of  days  may  be  granted,  if  it  is  in  the  pleasure  of  God. 
But  ask  not  for  length  of  days. 

It  has  been  my  most  grateful,  most  painful  duty  to  declare 
to  this  bar,  upon  two  occasions,  the  impressions  that  have  been  left 
upon  me  by  the  death  of  these  two  eminent  men.  Let  no  man  envy 
me  the  task,  however  great  the  satisfaction  may  be,  in  short  retrospect 
to  myself.  Henceforth  no  such  duty  remains  to  me.  I  have  uttered 
the  last  words  at  a  bar  meeting  upon  the  departure  of  friends.  I 
have  probably  uttered  my  final  words  to  the  bar  of  Philadelphia, 
except  the  expression  of  my  most  cordial  regard  and  most  affectionate 

salutations  to  you  all. 

265 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Ex.  73 

Mr.  Binney  succeeded  Mr.  Sergeant  as  Chancellor  of 
the  Law  Association  of  Philadelphia,5  of  which  both  had  been 
founders,  but  after  two  years  he  declined  re-election,  as  his 
age  made  it  uncertain  whether  he  could  at  all  times  fulfil  the 
duties  of  the  office. 

Early  in  1853  Mr.  Binney  received  the  sad  news  of  the 
death,  in  Paris,  of  his  nephew,  Horace  Binney  Wallace,  a 
member  of  the  bar  and  a  man  of  very  remarkable  culture, 
who,  though  only  thirty-five  years  old,  had  already  attained 
distinction  as  a  writer,  not  merely  on  legal  topics,  but  on  art 
and  literature.  Mr.  Binney  wrote  a  short  obituary  pamphlet 
in  regard  to  his  nephew,  whose  death,  as  he  wrote  to  Judge 
White,  "  has  afflicted  me  more  than  such  an  event  ought  to 
afflict  an  old  man,  who  is  near  dying  himself  to  all  that  lives 
on  this  earth.  The  notice  which  I  have  sketched  of  him, 
instead  of  going  beyond  his  merits,  as  such  notices  commonly 
do,  does  not  in  truth  come  up  to  them.  He  bore  my  name, 
and  that  circumstance  probably  drew  me  nearer  to  him  when 
he  was  young,  and  I  as  his  sponsor  in  baptism  felt  a  sort  of 
duty  to  observe  him ;  but  apart  from  personal  partiality  and 
relation  by  blood,  my  fixed  opinion  is  that  if  his  life  had  been 
spared  he  would  have  been  one  of  the  first  writers,  critics,  and 
lawyers  of  the  age,  and  that  his  death  is  a  great  public  loss. 
This  also  is  the  general  opinion  of  the  profession  in  this 
city." 

Mr.  Binney's  keen  sorrow  over  this  bereavement  long 
remained.  Even  two  years  later  a  letter  wholly  devoted  to 
the  same  subject  shows  that  it  was  still  fresh  in  his  mind. 

One  of  the  tasks  which  Mr.  Binney  set  himself  during  his 


5  He  had  been  an  active  member  of  the  Library  Committee  from  1805  to  1827, 
and  Vice-Chancellor  and  ex-officio  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Censors  from 
1827  to  1836. 

266 


1853]  THE    ALIENIGEN^E 

years  of  retirement  was  to  go  over  his  reports,  and  prepare 
notes  showing  the  subsequent  development  of  the  law  along 
the  lines  of  the  various  cases  reported.  This  work  he  com 
pleted  in  February,  1853,  but  it  never  appeared  in  print.  He 
never  could  be  brought  to  believe  that  any  product  of  his  pen 
was  really  valuable,  and  ultimately  gave  binding  instructions 
that  all  these  notes  should  be  destroyed  after  his  death,  and 
it  was  done  accordingly. 

In  consequence  of  this  review  of  the  reports,  he  wrote, 
"  my  respect  for  Chief  Justice  Tilghman  is  much  increased, 
and  it  is  surprising  that  in  this  day  of  judicial  legislation  and 
speculation,  his  decisions  should  have  been  so  little  disturbed. 
Notwithstanding  professions,  I  doubt  whether  his  successor 
thought  well  of  him,  or  rather  was  willing  that  others  should 
think  he  thought  well  of  him.  He  differed  from  him  some 
times  without  a  shadow  of  reason ;  and  in  one  or  two  instances 
I  have  shown  this,  perhaps  unsparingly.  There  was  no  pos 
sible  comparison  between  the  men  in  fundamental  learning, 
in  calm  reflective  consideration,  in  judicial  integrity  in  its 
highest  and  best  meaning,  in  logical  connection,  and,  above 
all,  in  prospective  wariness." 

By  the  year  1853  the  great  increase  in  the  volume  of 
American  travel  in  Europe  had  made  the  question  of  the 
citizenship  of  children  born  in  foreign  parts  a  very  practical 
one.  The  naturalization  laws  did  not  cover  such  cases,  and 
all  attempts  at  a  change  in  the  law  had  hitherto  failed.  In 
fact,  one  of  Mr.  Binney's  own  grandsons  was  an  alien  as  the 
law  then  stood.  During  this  year  he  wrote  a  timely  essay  on 
"  The  Alienigense  of  the  United  States,"  and  its  publication 
undoubtedly  aided  in  securing  the  passage  of  the  Act  of 
February  10, 1855,  now  Section  1993  of  the  Revised  Statutes 
of  the  United  States,  which  established  the  citizenship  of  the 
foreign-born  children  of  citizens.  "  Congress,  I  learn,"  wrote 

267 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  74 

Mr.  Binney  shortly  afterwards,  "  have  passed  a  bill  for  the 
relief  of  the  alienigence,  and,  for  a  wonder,  as  it  was  a  very 
reasonable  bill,  President  Pierce  has  not  vetoed  it." 

The  movement  for  the  consolidation  of  the  city  of  Phila 
delphia  and  the  surrounding  districts  into  a  single  munici 
pality,  unsuccessful  in  1845,  was  renewed  some  years  later, 
when  conditions  had  materially  changed,  owing  to  the  great 
increase  in  the  population  of  the  districts.  Mr.  Binney's  ad 
vice  was  therefore  sought,  and  in  a  letter  of  June  23,  1853, 
to  his  son,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  movement,  he  declared  his 
adhesion  to  it. 

I  regard  all  the  objects  of  local  and  immediate  interest  at  this 
time  in  the  city  as  much  more  intimately  connected  by  intrinsic  rela 
tions  than  they  are  by  mere  contemporaneousness.  The  fire  depart 
ment,  the  groggery  system,  the  venal  selection  of  candidates  for  office 
by  bargains,  expressed  or  implied,  for  the  benefit  of  the  wire-workers,6 
and  the  tax  collection  system  all  act  upon  and  are  acted  upon  by  each 
other.  Those,  therefore,  who  are  of  the  same  mind  as  to  one  or  two 
of  these  may  very  properly  unite  in  the  reform  ticket  with  those  who 
are  more  interested  in  other  objects.  ...  I  have  come  to  the  opinion 
that  we  must  have  a  united  power  through  all  the  parts  of  our  city 
and  districts  to  make  any  of  these  reforms  attainable;  and  although 
in  the  beginning  I  opposed  what  is  called  consolidation,  and  both 
wrote  and  spoke  against  it,  and  still  think  that  it  will  have  its  specific 
evils  or  inconveniences,  yet  its  highly  probable  effect  will  be  to  put 
down  certain  very  gross  abuses  of  recent  years,  and  I  no  longer  oppose 
it.  Indeed,  in  some  respects,  the  grounds  of  my  opposition  have  become 
obsolete.  That  has  already  happened  in  the  city  which  I  feared  con 
solidation  would  bring  about ;  and  consolidation,  under  a  good  charter, 
may  now  tend  to  prevent  further  progress  in  the  same  bad  course. 


6  Consolidation,  unfortunately,  failed  to  remedy  this  great  evil,  thus  showing 
clearly  that  good  laws  cannot  take  the  place  of  civic  righteousness.  The  hope 
expressed  at  the  close  of  the  above  extract,  referring  evidently  to  the  election 
of  better  men  to  the  city  Councils,  was  not  realized. 


1854]  CONSOLIDATION 

The  letter  went  on  to  point  out  the  necessity  of  electing 
men  of  the  best  type  to  both  houses  of  the  Legislature  to 
urge  the  passage  of  the  consolidation  bill,  and  dwelt  specially 
upon  the  great  benefit  that  would  result  if  Mr.  Eli  K.  Price 
would  consent  to  serve  in  the  State  Senate.  This  course  was 
pursued,  and  through  Mr.  Price's  efforts  the  consolidation 
bill  became  a  law  on  February  2,  1854.  When  Mr.  Price,  in 
1872,  wrote  an  historical  account  of  "  The  City's  Consolida 
tion,"  he  dedicated  the  book  to  Mr.  Binney,  making  the 
following  acknowledgment : 

Though  not  personally  an  actor  in  the  work  of  consolidation, 
the  counsel  and  countenance  of  Horace  Binney  were  invaluable  to  his 
active  juniors,  and  with  the  public  largely  influential.  With  the 
writer  his  opinion  was  authoritative  to  induce  him  to  submit  to  the 
demand  of  his  fellow-citizens  to  represent  them  in  the  Senate. 

The  year  1854  was  marked  by  a  movement  for  the  acqui 
sition  of  Cuba.  Conditions  have  changed  since  then,  but  in 
view  of  the  recent  expansion  of  the  United  States,  Mr. 
Binney's  idea  of  the  scheme,  written  to  his  son,  then  in 
Europe,  may  not  be  devoid  of  interest. 

June  14,  1854. 

.  .  .  They  talk,  you  may  see  by  the  Ledger,  though  perhaps 
it  is  not  there,  of  a  Commission  to  Spain  to  purchase  Cuba,  or  some 
thing  like  that,  Mr.  Dallas  and  Mr.  Cobb  to  be  adjoined  to  Mr.  Soule, 
the  present  member.  If  you  should  see  the  Queen  of  Spain,  give  my 
compliments  to  her,  and  tell  her,  and  you  may  tell  the  Emperor  of 
France  and  the  Queen  of  England  the  same  thing,  if  you  get  a  private 
opportunity,  that  if  they  want  to  give  us  something  to  do  at  home 
for  the  rest  of  our  lives,  so  that  the  people  abroad  may  mind  their 
own  business,  by  all  means  to  sell  us  Cuba.  I  have  heard  of  a  man's 
wanting  to  sell  a  travelling  menagerie,  consisting  of  rattlesnakes, 
two  porcupines,  and  a  grizzly  bear,  with  the  option  of  taking  a  hyena 

269 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  71-75 

if  the  purchaser  liked  him  upon  a  trial.  Whether  he  found  a  pur 
chaser,  I  do  not  know.  But  I  would  take  a  whole  island  full  of  such, 
without  any  trial  at  all,  rather  than  four  hundred  thousand  slaves 
and  half  as  many  bozales  (slaves  in  violation  of  law)  who  must  be 
sent  back  or  declared  free,  and  with  them  a  slave  island,  for  the 
approaching  dissolution  of  this  Union.  It  will  be  hard  to  hold  us 
together  as  things  are;  but  with  a  slave  island  State  of  Cuba,  pur 
chased  by  this  free  and  enlightened  republic,  it  would  be  only  im 
morally  possible — morally  impossible,  I  should  say,  without  any  doubt. 
For  Cuba  would  necessarily  be  only  the  first  island,  if  it  did  not  put 
an  end  to  us ;  and  a  chain  of  black  beads  about  our  Caucasian  throat 
ought  to  choke  us,  if  it  should  not.  In  fine,  Cuba,  Nebraska,  and  the 
Mexico  Gadsden  treaty  mean  progressive  slavery,  and  mean  nothing 
else ;  and  in  my  opinion,  when  this  shall  come  to  be  the  declared  and 
settled  policy  of  Congress,  the  long-headed  people  of  some  of  our 
Atlantic  States  will  be  inquiring  whereabouts  the  break  had  best  be, 
and  prepare  accordingly.  When  our  Confederation  policy — which 
was  progressive  emancipation — shall  be  completely  reversed,  I  think 
it  will  be  found  that  the  old  account  book  by  double  entry,  black  and 
white,  is  full,  and  that  some  portion  of  this  people  will  open  another, 
by  single  entry,  all  white.  The  future  has  been  growing  darker  and 
darker  to  me  for  thirty  years, — I  mean  the  political  future, — and  is 
now  very  dark  and  fuliginous.  Doubtless  it  is  in  part  the  fault  of  my 
old  eyes !  Franklin  Pierce,  I  hope,  sees  farther  and  better  than  I  do. 
We  shall  know  something  more  of  it  about  the  time  of  the  next  Presi 
dential  election. 

Nothing  further  at  present.  All  here,  especially  your  mother, 
send  a  thousand  embraces.  I  shall  want  to  hear  something  of  whom 
and  what  you  see,  after  you  get  out  of  the  entry,  into  the  house ;  but 
what  I  most  desire  to  learn  is  that  your  throat  gives  you  no  further 
trouble,  which,  however,  I  expect  will  come  at  the  conclusion,  and  not 
immediately. 

When  in  New  England  in  the  summer  of  1851,  Mr.  Bin- 
ney  had  wished  to  revisit  the  scenes  of  his  boyhood,  and  espe- 

270 


1851-55]  MENOTOMY 

cially  to  show  them  to  his  wife.  Watertown  and  Dr.  Spring's 
house  were  readily  found,  but  Menotomy,  where  he  had  lived 
the  year  before  entering  college,  seemed  to  have  vanished 
from  the  earth.  Starting  out  on  a  road  which  he  thought  he 
knew  as  well  as  any  Philadelphia  street,  he  found  strange 
houses  and  new  and  confusing  cross-roads.  The  name  of 
Menotomy  was  unknown  either  to  the  driver  or  to  the  people 
whom  they  met.  Unfortunately  their  time  was  limited,  and 
so,  when  after  a  little  they  saw  a  pond, — "  I  said  to  my 
wife, '  there,  there  it  is,'  for  which  she  gave  me  a  kiss,  I  know 
ing  all  the  time  that  it  was  not  the  pond,  but  determined  not 
to  disappoint  her.  It  was  Fresh  Pond,  a  mile  or  two  to  the 
south  of  Menotomy.  We  got  what  pleasure  we  could  from 
this  pretty  view,  my  wife,  of  course,  imagining  that  she  saw 
the  very  house  that  I  resided  in  and  the  pond  where  I  caught 
a  memorable  pike  she  had  heard  of,  and  I  dodging  as  well  as 
I  could  her  minute  inquiries  about  precise  localities,  so  as  to 
avoid  any  very  dingy  lie.  Menotomy,  however,  as  a  reality, 
was  at  least  two  miles  off." 

In  1855,  when  on  a  visit  to  his  younger  son  at  Providence, 
Mr.  Binney  was  more  successful.    After  visiting  Cambridge 
to  note  the  buildings   (Stoughton,  Holworthy,  etc.)   which 
were  new  since  his  college  days,  and  to  point  out  his  old  rooms 
in  Hollis,  "  we  proceeded  on  the  public  road,  I  to  Menotomy, 
the  driver  and  horses  to  West  Cambridge.    The  road  I  knew 
fwell,  the  houses,  some  handsome,  some  common,  I  knew  not 
at  all.    In  about  three  miles,  the  driver  was  making  a  short 
i  turn  to  the  left.    '  Halt/  I  cried  out ;  '  you  are  going  wrong ; 
that  is  not  the  way  to  Menotomy.    Keep  on  as  you  were,  and 
:  go  ahead.'    His  answer  was,  '  That  is  the  road,  sir,  to  Spy- 
pond,'  and  I  saw  at  the  corner  a  placard  '  Spy-pond  Hotel.' 
I  repeated,  '  Go  ahead.    I  don't  want  that  Spy-pond,  I  want 
Menotomy.'    '  I  will  drive  just  as  you  tell  me,  sir,  but  I  don't 

271 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  75 

know  that  place.'  *  Keep  on  as  you  were,  and  when  you  see 
a  graveyard,  turn  short  to  the  left  alongside  of  it.'  In  a 
minute  we  spied  the  gravestones,  and  in  another  minute  we 
took  the  left  turn,  which  brought  me  at  once  to  the  place 
where  I  had  passed  so  many  cheerful  months.  But,  to  my 
grief,  a  large  showy  house,  coming  out  nearly  to  the  road, 
had  apparently  supplanted  my  old  abode,  and  my  landmark 
was  gone.  I  told  the  driver  to  walk  his  horses,  and  I  was 
about  to  curse  the  man  that  had  removed  his  neighbour's 
landmark,  when,  as  we  turned  the  corner  of  this  new  house, 
there,  in  its  quiet  old  niche,  about  a  hundred  yards  from  the 
road,  stood  my  old  house,  exactly  the  same  in  shape  and 
shade,  and  with  the  same  lawn,  fences,  side-road  or  approach, 
and  barn,  as  sixty  years  before. 

"  We  got  out  and  walked  up  the  carriage-way  to  the 
house,  and  I  recalled  to  William,  as  well  as  time  would  allow 
me,  my  early  goings  in  and  out  of  that  house,  my  way  across 
two  fields  to  the  parson's,  Mr.  Fisk,  to  whom  I  recited  my 
Greek  and  Latin,  the  path  over  one  of  the  fields,  now  ob 
structed  by  a  large  church,  over  the  other  by  three  or  more 
villas  and  their  appurtenances,  shutting  out  the  parson's 
house,  if  it  was  still  there,  and  confounding  all  my  memories. 
Everything  about  me  was  new,  except  Polly  Cook's  house, 
and  this  seemed  to  have  been  preserved  in  the  same  old  maiden 
dress  that  its  good  mistress,  the  daughter  of  the  former 
minister,  the  old-time  friend  of  Dr.  Spring,  had  worn  in  her 
day,  and  had  put  upon  her  mansion  before  I  went  to  live 
under  her  eye. 

"  We  returned  to  the  carriage,  and  directed  the  driver 
to  walk  his  horses,  while  I  surveyed  malignantly  the  fine 
villas  which  I  supposed  had  blotted  out  Parson  Fisk's.  Their 
front  gardens  or  lawns  were  not  deep,  and  then  came  the  new 
houses  and  their  out-houses,  and  there  must  have  been  half  a 

272 


1855]  MENOTOMY 

dozen  of  these  on  the  road-side,  which  made  me  desperate,  as 
one  or  all  were  usurpers  of  that  pretty  parsonage  that  to  my 
eye  was  worth  them  all,  and  which  I  could  not  see  in  any 
direction.    At  length,  [a  turn  of  the  road]  shutting  in  the 
last  of  these  houses,  and  opening  a  space  of  fifty  or  seventy- 
five  feet  before  another  villa  or  house  of  the  same  kind  rose 
jp,  I  turned  my  eye  northward,  and  there  in  its  niche  also, 
i  hundred  yards  from  the  road,  stood  the  identical  old  par- 
;onage,  and  the  barn  and  out-houses,  all  as  I  had  known  them, 
ind  many  times  overrun  them  all.    For  I  was  familiar,  tho' 
ii  boy,  with  the  master-parson,  rode  his  horse  to  plough  the 
;orn,  and  cut  my  fingers  in  reaping  his  rye,  while  he  was  a 
;o-worker  in  the  same  labours  upon  the  glebe  which  was 
illotted  him,  with  a  scanty  salary  of  one  hundred  dollars  law- 
\il  money,  in  return  for  the  work  of  his  ministry.    I  passed 
Peasant  days  in  and  about  that  quiet  place,  and  I  was  de- 
ighted  to  find  how  the  recalling  of  them  delighted  the  young- 
st  of  my  children. 

"  On  the  opposite  or  left  side  of  the  road  there  was  in 
I  ay  time  a  range  of  lots  or  fields,  where  the  parson  grew  his 
ye  and  potatoes,  as  other  people  did  farther  on;  and  then 
ields,  perhaps  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards,  or  it  may  be  twice 
hat  in  depth,  gently  sloped  to  a  bank  of  fifteen  or  twenty 
eet  in  height,  at  the  bottom  of  which,  on  its  gravelly  shore, 
ty  Menotomy  pond,  perhaps  a  mile  in  length  and  half  a  mile 
,1  breadth,  with  an  islet  or  two  in  it,  and  one  especially, 
Dvered  with  pines  and  other  evergreens,  nearest  to  the  north- 
rn  shore.  In  these  bright  waters  I  used  to  bathe  and  fish 
i  the  summer,  and  on  them  I  used  to  skate  and  fish  in  the 
inter, — fish  through  a  hole  in  the  ice,  with  a  device  that 
THild  tell  me  when  I  had  hooked,  tho'  I  was  skating  fifty 
;ards  away  from  it.  And  there  we  now  caught  glimpses  of 
lie  lake,  through  the  intervals  between  the  villas  or  country 

18  273 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  75 

houses  which  occupied  the  fields  and  banks  for  three-quarters 
of  a  mile,  and  saw  distinctly  that  pretty  pine  islet,  between 
which  and  the  shore  I  caught  that  memorable  six-pound 
pike. 

'  The  whole  scene  was  changed  enough  to  make  it  en-< 
tirely  different,  and  there  were  enough  of  the  natural  features 
remaining  to  make  it  the  same,  to  me.  The  day  was  bright, 
the  air  cool  and  refreshing,  the  waters  clear  and  rippling  to 
the  breeze,  the  villas  and  houses  well  formed,  nicely  painted, 
the  lawns  closely  shaven,  the  flowers  exhibiting  their  forms 
and  exhaling  their  odours,  and  my  delight,  even  amid  the 
change,  can  hardly  be  expressed.  Had  I  been  alone,  I  should 
have  been  melancholy;  with  my  companion,  I  was  perhaps 
less  sentimental  than  he  was. 

'  We  pursued  the  back  road  to  Watertown,  shutting  in 
the  western  end  of  Menotomy  Pond,  and  then  meeting  more 
and  more  houses,  barns,  and  enclosures  which  my  memory 
called  up,  and  with  so  much  accuracy  that  I  was  able  even  to 
point  out  the  very  spot  where  my  ignorant  young  teeth  had 
fleshed  the  skin  of  a  green  walnut,  to  get  at  the  nut,  and  set 
my  whole  mouth  on  fire.  The  tree  had  been  removed,  and 
the  burning  too,  from  eye  and  taste,  but  the  brain  had  pre 
served  both  impressions." 

Dr.  Spring's  descendants  had  parted  with  the  house  at 
Watertown,  so  Mr.  Binney  did  not  enter  it.  '  The  place," 
he  wrote,  "  has  all  its  former  rural  beauties  about  it, — the 
prospect  over  the  adjacent  country  the  same;  the  fields,  for 
nearly  half  a  mile  on  each  side  and  two  miles  in  front,  the 
same.  Is  it  only  when  we  are  old  that  we  cling  to  these  old 
friends, — the  fields,  the  trees  that  have  known  us  when  we 
were  young,  the  houses  of  our  youth,  the  abodes  of  dear 
friends  that  have  left  us,  the  memories  of  what  they  said  to 
us  and  did  for  us?  And  do  we,  when  young,  pass  them 

274 


m 


1855]  HULL 

away  to  strangers,  content  to  forget  and  be  forgotten  by 
them?  To  an  old  man  like  myself  nothing  can  be  more 
strange.  I  declare  with  entire  sincerity  that  if  that  place 
were  at  this  time  within  reach  of  me,  I  would  not  let  a  day 
pass  without  endeavouring  to  possess  it;  and,  still  farther 
removed  from  it  than  I  am,  my  children  I  am  sure  would 
thank  me  for  acquiring  it,  and  would  hold  it,  I  trust,  as  long 
'as  they  could  hold  anything." 

The  next  day  was  devoted  to  Hull.    "  I  approached  Hull 
[with  some  misgivings.    I  expected,  from  what  I  had  heard, 
meet  a  little  dilapidated  old  fishing-village,  smelling  per- 
laps  of  New  England  rum  and  fishing-smacks,  with  half  a 
lozen  taverns  and  a  few  trumpery  shops,  and  the  sashes 
iff ed  in  many  places  with  old  petticoats,  as  I  had  once  seen 
it  Marblehead.    I  know  not  how  I  got  the  idea  that  it  was 
noisy  and  dirty  place,  full  of  politics  and  chatter,  with  only 
talf  a  dozen  voters,  and  that  it  was  a  lamentably  shabby  place 
or  a  gentleman  to  have  a  grandfather  and  great-grandfather 
>rn  in,  and  for  the  great-great-Scotch-English  emigrant 
Tom  whom  the  rest  had  proceeded  to  sit  down  in  and  breed 
ip  a  posterity.     I  certainly  somehow  got  the  notion  that 
lough  Deacon  John  Binney,  my  great-grandfather,  was 
,e  pumpkinSj  having  not  only  been  the  head  layman  of 
fiis  church,  but  when  his  ten  children  had  all  grown  up  and 
:eft  him,  courageously  and  with  determination  aforethought 
Tied  at  the  age  of  seventy-six  a  second  wife,  and  rode  up 
id  the  square-necked  peninsula  of  Nantasket  on  horse- 
jk  to  Boston  one  day,  and  carried  his  wife  down  on  a  pillion 
ie  next,  some  thirty  miles  each  way, — that  though  this 
leacon  was  worthy  to  be  the  great-grandfather  of  a  very 
p-eat  man  and  a  still  greater  churchman,  rather  of  the  high 
>rder,  yet  that  if  he  and  his  Hull  forefathers  were  not  small 
itoes,  they  had  been  raised  in  a  very  small  patch.    And 

275 


HORACE    BINNEY  [Mv.  75 

so  much  was  undoubtedly  true.  But  I  also  thought  that  it 
was  a  sandy  and  rather  disagreeable  patch,  not  much  to  be 
spoken  about;  and  that  it  had  been  levelled  down,  and 
trampled  down  with  fishermen's  boots  or  bare  feet,  and  had 
for  this  and  like  reasons  a  rather  unsavoury  smell.  And  it 
was  with  these  presentiments  that  I  approached  the  place.  I 
rather  think  that  I  am  indebted  for  them  to  some  newspaper 
squibs  let  off  against  the  great  town  of  Hull  and  its  seven 
voters,  and  rather  more  to  some  twists  and  turns  of  the  nose 
when  some  of  my  Boston  relations  spoke  of  it.  I  was,  how 
ever,  determined  to  face  the  worst  of  it;  and  as  I  knew  that 
I  was  coming  to  nothing  myself,  I  meant,  if  it  was  so,  to 
have  the  comfort  of  seeing  that  I  had  come  from  nothing 
in  the  beginning.  Both  are  very  likely  to  be  true,  with 
nothing  in  either  the  beginning  or  the  ending  to  be  ashamed 
of.  It  is  the  case  with  a  great  many  of  us,  whatever  we  may 
think  of  ourselves  or  our  ancestors.  .  .  . 

"  Between  [two  low  hills],  on  which  there  were  trees,  and 
enclosing  fences,  lay  the  quiet  and  very  peculiar  place  we 
were  to  visit.  We  entered  it  on  the  eastern  side,  taking  a 
very  quiet  and  private  road  or  street  at  the  foot  of  the 
eastern  hill,  as  it  was  on  that  road  that  the  telegraph  agent 
said  we  should  find  the  graveyard.  It  was  a  beautiful  morn 
ing,  and  this  may  have  assisted  the  scene.  The  houses  on 
each  side,  and  well  on  to  the  middle  of  the  space  between 
the  two  hills  or  buttresses  of  the  hamlet,  had  generally  an 
open  space  before  them,  as  well  as  at  the  side  and  beyond, 
with  trees  and  small  orchards,  or  plots  for  grass,  potatoes, 
and  the  like.  There  were  no  buildings  behind  the  front  range, 
extending  up  the  hill.  The  whole  hill-side  had  grass  or  grain 
and  trees,  I  think.  All  the  houses  were  in  respectable  repair, 
of  moderate  size,  neither  very  old  nor  very  new.  Towards  the 
interior  there  were  newer  buildings,  and  one  quite  large  and 

276 


1855]  HULL 

commodious,  newly  painted  but  of  plain  architecture,  with 
good  lawns,  trees,  grass,  and  some  arable  ground  in  rye  grain 
or  Indian  corn.  .  .  . 

'  We  soon  entered  the  graveyard;  which  was  on  a  slope 
of  the  same  eastern  elevation,  and  at  the  very  end  of  the  town 
plot,  which  is  nearly  a  round  one,  and  closes  at  this  point  to  a 
neck  or  isthmus,  which  drops  a  little  and  leads  off  to  another 
part  of  what  I  have  called  the  squash  neck.  Hull  might 
very  well  be  compared  to  a  star  port  at  the  end  of  a  breast 
work. 

"  We  rushed,  of  course,  to  the  stones  of  the  graves  that 
were  nearest,  for  our  time  was  nearly  out,  and  we  had  to 
go  back  to  our  pier  for  the  returning  boat.  Among  the  very 
first  that  we  examined  were  several  with  the  name  of  Binney. 
We  had  no  time  to  copy  inscriptions,  scarcely  to  read  them. 
There  was  one  of  a  Molly  Binney.  Molly  was  the  name  by 
which  my  sister  Mary,  Mrs.  Sargent,  was  called  until  she 
was  a  woman.  Polly  was  the  name  by  which,  when  I  was 
a  boy,  I  heard  my  mother  called.  Though  a  common  substi 
tute  for  the  name  of  Mary  in  former  times,  the  letters  went 
thro'  my  heart.  My  brother  John  once  said,  when  his  younger 
sister  by  two  years  revealed  one  of  his  peccadilloes  to  my 
mother,  and  she  reproved  him,  '  Molly,  you  know,  is  a  simple 
child.'  Another  was  a  Reverend  Spencer  Binney,  I  think, 
and  there  were  others.  They  were,  however,  comparatively 
modern,  as  late  as  1810.  The  more  distant  ones,  of  which 
there  were  only  a  few,  we  had  no  time  to  examine.  I  hope 
my  son  may  again  visit  the  spot.  It  is  more  than  one  hun 
dred  years  since  my  father  was  born  in  Boston,  where  my 
grandfather  had  resided  several  years,  and,  as  I  have  been 
told,  in  Milk  street,  adjoining  Mr.  Eben  Parsons,  and  near 
the  Old  South.  No  gravestone  of  his  progenitors  probably 
is  extant;  but  I  would  give  a  great  deal  to  find  some  me- 

277 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^BT.  75 


morial  of  the  valiant  old  deacon;   and  I  hope  my  son  may 
look  for  it.7 

'  We  returned  rapidly,  now  taking  the  western  road  or 
street  at  the  front  of  the  western  hill.  (N.  B.  —  I  have 
called  them  western  and  eastern,  when  they  may  be  really 
anything  else.  By  eastern  I  mean  towards  the  ocean,  by 
the  western,  towards  the  interior  bay.)  We  again  passed 
the  town-house  and  the  pond,  and  looked  around  and  through 
the  interior  of  the  town.  We  saw  half  a  dozen  men,  two 
or  three  in  a  group  in  one  instance,  who  seemed  to  be  resting 
from  their  labours,  and  more  occupied  with  looking  at  us, 
and  noting  our  quick  strides  to  and  from  the  graveyard, 
than  with  anything  else.  We  saw  no  tavern,  smelt  no  rum, 
beheld  no  petticoats  in  the  window-sashes,  saw  no  fisherman's 
boots,  nor  yet  any  bare  feet.  It  had  no  bad  odours,  no  bad 
sights,  there  were  no  appearances  of  decay,  none  I  must 
also  say  of  business  or  what  is  called  life.  It  was,  in  fine, 
a  rural  hamlet  or  dell,  pleasant  eno'  to  the  eye,  and  beauti 
fully  shut  in  on  two  sides  by  the  rising  grounds  I  have 
described.  How  the  people  live,  or  support  themselves,  I 
do  not  know;  they  may  cultivate  outlying  land  beyond  the 
graveyard.  They  may  have  other  ways  enough  by  the 
neighbourhood  of  Boston.  The  men  have  some  reputation 
for  shrewdness,  at  least  in  politics,  for  the  saying  in  regard 
to  elections  is,  '  As  goes  Hull,  so  goes  the  State.'  But  leaving 
all  this  to  future  inquiry,  and  my  curiosity  on  this  heacj.  is 
now  greater  than  it  was  before,  I  must  say  that  I  never 
saw  a  place  that  I  should  have  less  objection  to  be  born  in 
myself,  than  Hull.  Had  I  been  dropt  into  it  from  a  bal- 


7  Note  by  Mr.  Binney:  "A  few  years  ago  I  contributed  to  the  erection  of  a 
monument  stone  over  the  ascertained  remains  of  Deacon  John  Binney.  This  was 
at  the  instance  of  Charles  J.  F.  Binney,  of  Boston,  a  descendant  of  Amos,  the 
brother  of  my  grandfather.  July  9,  1868." 

278 


i    1855]  HULL 

I 

loon,  I  should  have  said,  '  I  have  got  into  a  sort  of  Shaker 
village,  not  quite  so  thriving  and  regular  and  well  to  do  as 
Lebanon.'  I  might  have  doubted  of  this  after  I  had  not 
been  able  to  find  a  church,  and  certainly  there  was  no  steeple 
in  the  town,  not  even  on  the  town-house.  I  should,  at  all 
events,  have  said  that  I  had  never  before  seen  a  town  like 
it,  and  there  are  reasons  enough  for  its  being  as  it  is.  No 
one  passes  through  it  to  anything  else.  No  one  goes  from 
it  to  anything  else,  except  by  water,  or  perhaps  to  bring 
back  a  wife  upon  a  pillion.  It  is  entirely  nondescript  among 
municipalities;  and  now  that  I  have  seen  it,  I  am  quite 
glad  that  my  first  paternal  ancestor  was  born  there.  I  have 
no  doubt  he  was  autochthonous,  and  my  lineage  is  as  good 
as  that  of  any  other  son  of  the  earth. 

"  On  our  return  to  the  hotel  nearest  the  pier,  I  found 
that  I  knew  the  keeper  of  it,  Bipley.  He  used  to  keep  the 
Warrener  at  Springfield,  and  as  he  some  years  before  told 
me  that  two  maiden  ladies  of  my  name  lived  in  Hull,  and 
in  what  he  called  the  Old  Binney  House,  I  asked  if  they 
or  any  of  the  name  were  still  in  the  town,  and  he  said  that 
he  did  not  know  that  there  was  any  one  of  the  name  now 
living  there.  Yet  those  of  the  name  have  lived  there  nearly 
two  hundred  years.  I  possess  extracts  from  the  records  from 
the  time  of  John,  the  father  of  Deacon  John,  who  was 
residing  there  with  his  wife  Mercy  in  1680.  What  that 
Old  Binney  House  was,  and  where  it  is,  I  had  not  time  to 
inquire.  Certainly  I  will  never  marry  a  second  wife  before 
I  have  inquired  a  little  further  on  the  spot  about  the  Old 
House  and  Deacon  John. 

"  I  shall  make  no  comments  upon  either  scene  of  our 
two  days'  visit.  The  marvel  constantly  before  me  during 
the  last  was  that  I  could  have  lived  for  five  years  within  a 
two  hours'  sail  of  the  birthplace  of  my  ancestors,  and  yet 

279 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Ex.  74-75 

never  before  visited  it,  and  scarcely  heard  of  their  existence 
in  it.  My  father's  early  death  perhaps  accounts  for  it;  and 
I  am  glad  that  my  own  prolonged  life  has  enabled  me  to 
supply  this  chasm  to  my  children." 

Mr.  Binney's  opinion  of  the  suspension  of  Bishop  Onder- 
donk  in  1844  has  already  been  referred  to.  In  1847  a  canon 
was  adopted  providing  that  every  sentence  of  suspension 
"  shall  specify  on  what  terms,  or  at  what  time,  said  penalty 
shall  cease."  As  this  canon  forbade,  for  the  future,  any 
sentence  of  indefinite  suspension,  a  termination  of  Bishop 
Onderdonk's  suspension  was  naturally  to  be  expected;  but 
his  appeal  for  a  remission  of  the  sentence  in  1847,  and  that 
of  the  Diocese  in  1850,  were  unheeded  by  the  House  of 
Bishops,  and  even  in  1853  a  resolution  of  remission  was 
defeated,  though  only  by  a  single  vote. 

Under  all  ordinary  circumstances  Mr.  Binney,  as  a  lay 
man,  would  not  have  undertaken  to  publicly  criticise  any 
action  of  the  House  of  Bishops,  but  he  felt  that  its  main 
tenance  of  a  sentence,  which  the  Convention  had  provided 
should  never  again  be  imposed  in  any  case,  was  an  act  of; 
such  harshness  and  severity  as  demanded  a  protest  from 
those  who  had  the  well-being  of  the  Church  at  heart.  Accord 
ingly  he  published  a  pamphlet  containing  a  full  statement 
of  the  case  of  Bishop  Onderdonk.  Though  he  saw  fit  to 
use  the  nom  de  plume,,  "  A  Member  of  the  Church,"  his 
authorship  was  probably  an  open  secret.  Bishop  Meade, 
and  afterwards  Bishop  Hopkins,  having  undertaken  a 
defence  of  the  action  of  the  House  of  Bishops,  Mr.  Binney 
published  two  pamphlets  in  1854  in  relation  to  the  particular 
case,  and  to  the  law  of  the  Church  of  England  in  regard 
to  suspension,  and  in  1855  two  more  pamphlets  on  the  law 
of  suspension  in  the  Primitive  Church,  demonstrating  from 
the  authorities  that  such  a  punishment  as  indefinite  suspen- 

280 


1854-55]     BISHOP    ONDERDONK'S    CASE 

sion  of  a  priest  or  a  bishop  from  his  office,  a  suspension 
unlimited  by  time  or  conditions,  was  wholly  unprecedented. 
He  objected  to  the  sentence,  however,  as  much  on  the  score 
of  severity  as  on  that  of  illegality. 

I  hold  it  to  be  sharper  and  more  severe  than  any  other  sentence 
that  the  bishops  can  inflict.  But  for  this  sentence,  I  know  of  nothing 
:hat  would  have  induced  me  to  put  pen  to  paper  in  this  unhappy 
controversy.  But  I  can  never  surrender  my  opposition  to  this  while 
reason  and  life  remain  to  me.  I  would  not  trust  the  exercise  of  the 
power  of  inflicting  such  a  sentence  to  any  living  creature.  I  would 
not  trust  myself  with  it,  nor  those  whom  I  most  venerate  and  love. 
[  would  not  impose  such  a  sentence  on  any  man  for  any  offence,  even 
for  the  greatest.  It  breaks  the  heart  of  the  man  upon  whom  it  is 
imposed,  and,  unless  he  has  virtue  enough  to  require  no  punishment, 
makes  him  desperate.  To  certainty  of  the  worst  kind  he  can  become 
reconciled ;  to  uncertainty,  never,  from  the  very  constitution  of  nature 
which  God  has  given  to  him.  It  converts  the  judge  from  minister  of 
;he  law  into  irresponsible  arbiter.  Instead  of  pronouncing  as  his 
sentence  the  whole  voice  of  the  law,  and  inflicting  the  penalty  as  due 
ex  debito  justifies,  between  the  defendant  and  the  public,  it  retains  in 
;he  bosom  of  the  judge  just  so  much  unpronounced  as  will  leave  him 
;o  be  the  dispenser  of  favours.  Look  at  this  kind  of  sentence  as  you 
may,  with  or  without  reference  to  anything  that  has  ever  occurred, 
every  reflecting  person  must  see  that  this  is  its  necessary  effect  upon 
)oth  judge  and  defendant,  and  if  the  law  of  all  free  countries  con 
demn  it  as  intolerable  by  freemen,  how  can  it  be  thought  profitable 
or  tolerable  in  the  Church?  In  my  humble  judgment  the  sentence 
should  be  expunged,  without  reference  to  anything  that  is  past,  it 
not  being  morally  possible  that  any  evils  can  result  from  such  an 
extinction  at  all  comparable  to  the  evils  of  continuing  it.8 

It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  the  clear  and  calm  state 
ments  of  these  pamphlets  had  their  effect  in  changing  the 


Reply  to  Bishop  Meade's  second  pamphlet,  p.  20. 
281 


HORACE    BINNEY  [Mv.  78 

vote  of  fourteen  to  thirteen  against  remission  of  the  sentence 
in  1853,  to  a  vote  of  twenty-one  to  eight  in  favor  of  remis 
sion  in  1856,  when,  to  Mr.  Binney's  deep  satisfaction,  all 
Bishop  Onderdonk's  rights  of  public  ministration  were 
restored  to  him. 

The  year  1858  was  for  Mr.  Binney  the  beginning  of  a 
long  period  of  anxiety  and  distress,  which  was  destined  to 
end  only  in  the  deeper  sorrow  of  bereavement.  During  this 
year  his  wife,  just  three  years  his  junior,  and  who  had  up  to 
this  time  almost  equalled  him  in  health  and  strength,  was 
attacked  by  rheumatic  gout,  which,  gradually  increasing, 
made  her  more  and  more  of  a  cripple  until  she  was  confined 
entirely  to  her  room.  Her  great  patience  and  cheerfulness, 
maintained  even  under  very  severe  pain,  undoubtedly  helped 
her  husband  to  bear  up  as  he  could  not  have  done  otherwise ; 
but  the  ever  present  consciousness  of  her  suffering  neces 
sarily  clouded  the  happiness  of  his  life  from  this  time  on. 
Prior  to  this,  since  he  parted  with  his  house  in  Burlington, 
in  1846,  they  had  been  in  the  habit  of  spending  a  part  of 
each  summer  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Newport,  or  elsewhere 
to  the  north  of  Philadelphia,  but  after  his  wife's  illness 
began  Mr.  Binney  scarcely  ever  left  the  city,  except  for 
visits  at  the  country  place  of  his  son-in-law,  Mr.  Mont 
gomery,  where  Mrs.  Binney  was  usually  taken  in  mid 
summer. 

During  this  year  he  wrote  and  published  his  short  bio 
graphical  sketch  of  Judge  Bushrod  Washington,  whom  he 
had  known  well  for  thirty  years  until  the  judge's  death  in 
1829,  and  he  also  wrote  the  sketches  of  William  Lewis, 
Edward  Tilghman,  and  Jared  Ingersoll,  which  appeared 
the  following  April  under  the  title  of  "  The  Leaders  of  the 
Old  Bar  of  Philadelphia,"  they  having  been  the  seniors, 
as  well  as  the  most  prominent  men,  at  the  time  that  Mr. 

282 


1858]       LEADERS    OF    THE    OLD    BAR 

Binney  entered  the  profession  himself.  These  sketches  are 
probably  the  most  finished  of  all  his  writings,  casting  a 
delightful  glow,  as  of  the  genial  sunshine  of  a  peaceful 
summer  afternoon,  upon  the  eminent  men  of  those  days, 
which,  though  full  of  action,  seem  yet  to  have  been  days  of 
quiet  and  dignity,  a  century  and  more  ago,  before  modern 
hurry  and  rush  had  turned  law  into  a  trade  and  a  lawyer's 
chambers  into  a  sort  of  factory.  He  had  not  only  seen 
all  three  of  the  "  leaders"  repeatedly  in  court,  but  had  been 
fairly  well  acquainted  with  them,  especially  with  Mr.  Inger- 
soll;  and  by  1858  the  personal  recollection  of  them  had 
become,  as  Mr.  Binney  put  it,  "  pretty  much  an  octogenarian 
perquisite  of  my  own."  He  felt  that  Philadelphia  had  not 
dealt  fairly  with  these  great  lawyers  in  preserving  no  me 
morial  of  them,  and  that  the  profession  owed  them  a  debt, 
which  had  descended  upon  him  as  the  longest  liver,  and 
which,  as  far  as  any  written  memorial  went,  he  alone  could 
pay.  It  was  to  prevent  their  names  from  sinking  into  an 
undeserved  oblivion  that  these  sketches  were  written,  and 
the  fact  that  they  are  still  read  and  valued  shows  that  they 
were  not  writen  in  vain. 

There  was  also  another  motive  for  the  sketches.  Of  all 
the  social  and  political  changes  which  had  followed  the  down 
fall  of  Federalism,  the  almost  universal  destruction  of  the 
"  good  behaviour"  tenure  of  the  judiciary  of  the  several 
States  was  the  one  about  which  Mr.  Binney  had  felt  most 
keenly.  When,  a  few  years  later,  came  the  attempt  to 
break  up  the  Union  itself,  that  was,  in  his  eyes,  the  only 
greater  crime  against  liberty  and  civilization  that  he  had 
witnessed,  and  he  traced  both  offences  to  the  same  source. 
The  excellence  of  the  "  old  bar"  had  been,  he  held,  closely 
connected  with  the  "  good  behaviour"  tenure  of  the  judges 
before  whom  that  bar  had  practised,  and  he  wished,  in 

283 


HORACE    BINNEY  [MT.  79 

sketching  the  careers  and  characters  of  these  "  examples 
from  the  old  '  good  behaviour'  bar  of  Philadelphia,"  to  put 
into  permanent  form  a  protest  against  the  demoralizing 
changes  which  had  taken  place  in  the  judiciary  of  nearly  all 
the  States,  and  against  any  extension  of  that  change  to  the 
Federal  judiciary.  Whether  his  words  of  warning  have  had 
any  practical  effect  or  not,  they  are  at  least  of  a  character 
to  make  men  stop  and  think. 

The  charm  of  these  sketches  is  probably  due  to  the  fact 
that  they  are  a  personal  retrospect,  and  not  a  work  of  bio 
graphical  research.  Apropos  of  this,  Sir  John  Coleridge 
wrote  to  Mr.  Binney's  son  as  follows  : 

I  must  say  sincerely  that  your  father  has  been  happy  in  his 
design,  and  not  less  in  the  way  of  dealing  with  it.  His  three  heroes 
seem  to  have  been  remarkable  men  in  their  generation,  and  I  can 
enter  into  the  pleasure  which  your  best  men  of  the  present  day  must 
receive  from  having  an  authentic  record  of  them  and  a  faithful  sketch 
of  their  day  presented  by  such  a  man,  so  remarkable  and  eminent  in 
himself,  who  speaks  from  personal  knowledge  of  both  generations 
and  periods,  and  who  is  so  perfectly  competent  to  understand  and 
estimate  in  all  particulars  and  respects  the  men  he  speaks  of,  and  the 
two  systems,  as  I  may  almost  call  them. 


Tut  dJ  r/Sy  duo  fjikv  j'eveou  fjuponajv  a 

'E<pfttaiy,  o°  ol  Ttpoff&sv  ap.a  Tpd 

'Ev  Ilevvffotyavtr),  (J.erd  ds  TpiTaroiaiv  avctffffst. 


Excuse  my  Homeric  outburst.  It  smells  perhaps  of  my 
Heath's  Court  employment,  but  it  seems  to  me  very  suitable  to  your 
honoured  father  to  compare  him  to  Nestor,  except,  indeed,  that  I 
don't  suppose  he  overflows  quite  as  much  in  talk  as  that  vener 
able  chief  (leader  would  have  been  a  better  word)  appears  to  have 
done. 

The  Homeric  allusion  brought  the  following  reply: 

284 


1859]    WASHINGTON'S  FAREWELL  ADDRESS 

It  cannot  but  be  a  pleasure  to  you  to  see  one  American  willing 
to  breast  the  democratic  tide  which  surges  round  him,  and  "  stemming 
it  with  heart  of  controversy,"  not  seeking  in  the  least  the  approval 
of  the  present  day,  but  content  to  leave  on  record  after  him  words 
of  warning  which  may  one  day  find  a  hearing  from  his  countrymen. 
And  in  truth  my  father's  position  becomes  more  remarkable  with 
every  passing  year.  Your  comparison  of  him  to  Nestor  does  not 
strike  his  friends  here  as  extravagant,  but  I  think  very  few,  if  any, 
of  them  could  have  subdued  the  unmanageable  name  of  his  State  to 
the  demands  of  the  Greek  hexameter  as  skilfully  as  you  have  done 
at  the  expense  of  noble  Pylos. 

In  September,  1859,  Mr.  Binney  published  his  "  Inquiry 
into  the  Formation  of  Washington's  Farewell  Address." 
He  had  been  led  to  write  on  this  subject  in  consequence  of 
his  friendship  for  Mr.  John  C.  Hamilton  of  New  York, 
whose  acquaintance  he  had  made  at  Saratoga  some  years 
before,  and  in  whose  publications  of  the  writings  of  his 
great  father  Mr.  Binney  took  a  warm  interest.  From  De 
cember,  1857,  when  the  first  volume  of  Mr.  Hamilton's  final 
work 9  appeared,  frequent  letters  passed  between  them  until 
within  three  months  of  Mr.  Binney's  death.  To  aid  in 
placing  Alexander  Hamilton  before  the  world  in  his  true 
position  as  the  greatest  of  American  statesmen  was  an  object 
dear  to  Mr.  Binney's  heart,  and  not  the  less  so  that  it  neces 
sarily  involved  making  plain  the  intimate  relations  existing 
between  Washington  and  Hamilton,  and  their  complete 
agreement  and  thorough  co-operation  in  all  affairs  of  state. 
Hamilton's  connection  with  the  Farewell  Address  had  been 
the  subject  of  a  good  deal  of  controversy,  and  it  was  neces 
sary  to  settle  it,  once  for  all,  as  completely  as  the  evidence 

8 "  History  of  the  Republic  of  the  United  States  of  America,  as  traced  in 
the  writings  of  Alexander  Hamilton  and  of  his  Contemporaries,"  by  John  C. 
Hamilton,  7  vols.,  New  York,  1857-64. 

285 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Bx.  79 

permitted.  Mr.  Binney  felt  that  Mr.  Sparks,  the  editor  of 
Washington's  writings,  had  not  treated  the  question  fairly, 
and  that,  in  view  of  the  prejudice  which  existed  on  the  sub 
ject,  Hamilton's  son  would  be  at  a  disadvantage  in  attempt 
ing  to  present  the  truth,  which  was  that  the  Address,  while 
containing  exclusively  Washington's  own  views,  the  views 
which  he  had  desired  to  express  at  that  particular  time,  was, 
in  its  actual  form,  and  to  a  great  extent  in  its  language,  the 
work  of  Hamilton.  Mr.  Binney  therefore,  being  wholly 
unconnected  with  the  Hamilton  family,  took  the  task  upon 
himself,  regarding  it  rather  as  the  discharge  of  a  debt  than 
as  in  any  sense  a  favour  to  Mr.  Hamilton. 

I  owe  a  vast  debt  to  your  father.  I  can  trace  all  the  light  I 
have  in  regard  to  government  to  that  source,  received  at  that  period 
of  my  life  when  what  is  sown,  whether  of  good  or  evil,  grows  and 
spreads  vigorously;  and  with  this  light  came  so  much  at  least  of 
sympathy  with  his  honour,  pure  faith,  manfulness,  and  all  the  stand 
ards  by  which  he  upheld  them,  that,  beyond  any  principles  of  public 
government,  I  cannot  but  think  I  was  permanently  influenced  by  it. 
You  do  not  owe  me  a  tithe  of  what  I  owe  to  his  public  life  and  works ; 
and  all  that  I  have  endeavoured  to  pay  you  has  not  been  a  penny  in 
the  pound  of  my  debt  to  him.10 

The  fact  that  Mr.  Binney  should  have  "  turned  to  a 
purely  historical  and  literary  question,  based  upon  a  careful 
comparison  of  documentary  evidence,"  at  a  time  of  the 
utmost  political  unrest,  when  the  Union  itself  seemed  almost 
ready  to  fall  apart,  has  been  called  "  a  notable  instance  of 
the  mental  loneliness  of  a  legal  hermit."  The  writer  n  of 
those  words  cannot  have  been  in  possession  of  all  the  facts. 
It  was  just  because  Mr.  Binney  realized  fully  the  threaten- 


10  Letter  to  J.  C.  Hamilton,  Esq.,  April  3,  1863. 

11  Hampton  L.  Carson,  Esq.,  in  Philadelphia  Times,  July  31,  1892. 


1859]     WASHINGTON'S  FAREWELL  ADDRESS 

ing  state  of  the  country  that  he  turned  to  the  words  of  Wash 
ington  and  Hamilton  as  to  a  chart  showing  the  only  safe 
course  among  rocks,  shoals,  and  quicksands.  To  make  that 
chart,  the  conditions  under  which  it  was  prepared,  and  the 
men  who  prepared  it  better  known  was  a  most  timely  under 
taking;  none  the  less  so  that,  as  we  see  things  now,  no  human 
undertaking  could  apparently  have  prevented  the  inevitable 
conflict. 

In  this  essay  Mr.  Binney  examined  critically  all  the 
papers  bearing  upon  the  question;  and  the  circumstances 
under  which  they  had  been  written,  and  reached  the  follow 
ing  conclusion: 

Washington  was  undoubtedly  the  original  designer  of  the 
Farewell  Address.  .  .  .  The  fundamental  thoughts  and  principles 
were  his ;  but  he  was  not  the  composer  or  writer  of  the  paper.  .  .  . 

We  have  explicit  authority  for  regarding  the  whole  man  as 
compounded  of  body,  soul,  and  spirit.  The  Farewell  Address,  in  a 
lower  and  figurative  sense,  is  likewise  so  compounded.  If  these  were 
divisible  and  distributable,  we  might,  though  not  with  full  and  exact 
propriety,  allot  the  soul  to  Washington,  and  the  spirit  to  Hamilton. 
The  elementary  body  is  Washington's  also;  but  Hamilton  has  devel 
oped  and  fashioned  it,  and  he  has  symmetrically  formed  and  arranged 
the  members,  to  give  combined  and  appropriate  action  to  the  whole. 
This  would  point  to  an  allotment  of  the  soul  and  elementary  body  to 
Washington,  and  of  the  arranging,  developing,  and  informing  spirit 
to  Hamilton,  the  same  characteristic  which  is  found  in  the  great 
works  he  devised  for  the  country,  and  are  still  the  chart  by  which  his 
department  of  the  government  is  ruled.12 

What  Mr.  Binney  meant  by  the  "  soul"  of  the  Address 
are  the  nine  wishes  for  the  future  of  the  country,  and  cer- 


Inquiry,  etc.,  pp.  169-171. 

287 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  79 

tain  statements  immediately  accompanying  them,  of  which 
he  wrote: 

These  are  golden  truths,  a  treasure  of  political  wisdom,  expe 
rience,  and  foresight,  which,  from  the  gravity  of  their  tone,  the  depth 
of  their  sincerity,  their  simplicity,  and  the  tenderness  as  well  as 
strength  of  the  concern  they  manifest  for  the  whole  people,  make 
them  in  themselves  a  Farewell  Address,  as  it  were,  from  a  dying  father 
to  his  children.  And  they  are  Washington's  alone,  without  sugges 
tion  by  anybody, — Madison,  Hamilton,  or  any  other  friend  or  ad 
viser, — drawn  from  the  depth  of  Washington's  own  heart,  and  if  the 
whole  Farewell  Address,  as  it  now  stands  on  record,  were  decomposed, 
and  such  parts  dispelled  as  were  added  to  give  the  paper  entrance 
into  the  minds  of  States  and  legislators,  and  to  place  it  among  the 
permanent  rules  of  government,  the  great  residuum  would  be  found 
in  these  principles,  an  imperishable  legacy  to  the  people.  They  are 
the  soul  of  the  Farewell  Address.13 

Of  the  next  two  letters,  the  first  was  written  while  Mr. 
Binney  was  at  work  upon  his  "  Inquiry,"  and  the  second 
just  after  it  was  published.  It  is  clear  that  his  work  had 
not  tended  to  make  his  opinion  of  Jefferson  any  more  favour 
able  than  it  was  before,  but  rather  the  reverse. 

(To  the  Hon.  D.  A.  White.) 

PHILADA.,  May  20,  1859. 

It  has  delighted  me  to  see  your  handwriting  once  more,  and 
to  feel  the  pulse  of  your  warm  heart.  It  will  beat  so  while  it  beats 
at  all,  and  will,  I  have  no  doubt,  find  its  beats  in  unison  with  the 
measure  of  another  sphere  when  it  stops  in  this. 

I  received  the  Salem  paper,  and  saw  your  hand-prints,  and 
was  of  course  gratified.  But  perhaps  you  don't  exactly  understand 
me  as  to  this  matter  of  writing  and  printing.  I  have  written  several 


13  Inquiry,  etc.,  p.  40. 


1859]     WASHINGTON'S  FAREWELL  ADDRESS 

things  in  the  course  of  my  life,  some  of  them  in  the  way  of  business, 
and  some  in  the  way  of  duty;  and  these  have  been  pretty  much 
records,  and  I  have  cared  as  little  about  the  public  reception  as  if  I 
had  printed  copies  of  deeds.  All  other  things  that  I  have  printed 
have  been  written  from  the  heart  to  the  heart, — from  the  heart  of  a 
sincere  man  to  the  hearts  of  a  few  I  have  loved,  and  I  think  have 
loved  or  respected  me.  Beyond  these  few  I  have  cared  for  nothing, 
and  I  do  not  get  what  I  want  in  their  praise,  but  I  get  it  in  the 
reminder  that  they  understand  me  and  love  me  still.  I  cannot  bring 
myself  to  have  the  least  regard  for  the  praise  of  the  world,  for  I 
know  what  it  is  worth.  I  suppose  I  am  too  proud  to  be  willing  to 
divide  anything  with  a  crowd,  many  of  whom,  and  perhaps  the  most, 
are  drivellers.  A  good  book,  a  book  that  is  worth  printing  for  the 
instruction  of  the  world,  is,  always  excepting  primers  and  catechisms, 
the  rarest  thing  on  earth, — a  mild  day  in  the  Arctic  sea ;  reason  and 
virtue  in  a  democratic  mob.  I  therefore  hate  book-making  and  author 
ship,  and  never  can  have  anything  to  do  with  it.  I  do  not  say  this 
in  regard  to  what  I  have  written,  for  that  is  not  to  be  thought  of  as 
a  collection  by  me  or  by  anybody ;  but  I  say  it  to  clear  myself  of  the 
imputation  that,  by  printing  what  I  write  from  the  heart  to  the  heart, 
I  have  a  secret  aspiration  to  get  into  the  category  of  authors.  I  print 
only  to  carry  on  my  communion  with  a  few  externally;  the  larger 
communion  is  only  to  be  carried  on  by  the  thoughts  of  the  heart.  If 
I  could  do  it  through  a  book  that  would  live,  that  would  be  another 
matter ;  but  that  is  not  for  me,  and,  indeed,  has  been  and  will  be  for 
only  a  very  few.  .  .  . 

It  would  file  the  mind,  my  dear  White,  to  write  anything  about 
Jefferson.  I  know  him  thoroughly,  have  read  Randall's  book,  which 
is  as  much  a  fiction  by  colouring  as  the  history  of  the  island  of  For 
mosa  and  the  Formosan  language.  You  truly  say  that  his  Ana  are 
his  best  history.  I  was  consulted  by  Mr.  Randolph,  in  regard  to  the 
copyright  of  his  grandfather's  posthumous  works,  and  took  a  copy 
of  the  work,  which  I  regard  as  one  of  the  most  precious  in  my  library. 
If  we  could  get  Satan  to  write  a  history  of  his  own  life  and  actions, 
and  especially  some  account  of  his  opinions  about  the  Holy  Scriptures, 

19  289 


HORACE    BINNEY  [MT.  79 

nobody  of  common  honesty,  I  think,  would  want  any  further  evidences 
of  Christianity.  But  still  many  would  quote  him,  and  a  few  would 
swear  by  him.  I  was  much  struck,  however,  when  in  Congress,  in 
Jackson's  time,  in  finding,  as  I  thought  I  did  thoroughly,  that  if  he 
was  quoted  or  referred  to  at  all,  which  was  very  rarely,  the  quoter 
never  appeared  to  do  it  from  his  own  faith,  but  only  because  he 
thought  somebody  else  might  have  it.  So  I  think  it  is  universally 
now  in  the  country.  He  will,  however,  become  as  well  known  as  he 
need  to  be  for  his  infamous  malpractices  in  regard  to  Hamilton  and 
Washington,  by  John  C.  Hamilton's  life  of  his  father,  now  in  course 
of  publication, — an  authentic  reliable  work,  not  striking,  perhaps, 
in  point  of  style,  but  perfectly  reliable  and  true,  even  impartial,  for 
impartiality  is  often  the  severest  truth. 

(To  the  same.) 

PHILADA.,  Oct.  15,  1859. 

I  thank  you  for  your  most  kind  and  affectionate  letter.  The 
only  regret  that  came  with  it,  or  rather  that  it  produced,  was  for  the 
recent  disturbance  of  your  health.  What  precious  souls  the  precious 
old  souls  become  to  us,  when  God  is  pleased  to  spare  us  to  old  age. 
You  and  I  have  outlived  many;  and  like  the  thinning  ranks  in  a 
battle,  I  seem  to  come  nearer  to  you  every  day,  as  others  fall.  I  am 
almost  literally  without  a  comrade  here,  in  the  old  file;  but  I  thank 
God  that  He  still  preserves  one  or  two  in  other  parts  of  the  field.  We 
shall  come  together  at  last,  and  I  trust  lie  in  peace. 

I  send  you  by  express  a  copy  of  the  "  Inquiry,"  which  I  will 
thank  you  to  send  with  my  respects  to  Dr.  Peabody.  He  will  not,  I 
trust,  place  me  in  the  category  of  authors,  asking  for  fame  or  dis 
tinction.  I  wrote  that  paper  with  the  single  purpose  of  saving  Gen 
eral  Hamilton's  son  from  going  extensively,  or  perhaps  at  all,  into 
the  question  in  his  next  volume.  A  son  cannot  do  this  as  a  third 
person  might,  and  there  are  points  enough  in  it  on  which  any  one 
might  impale  himself  if  he  did  not  keep  a  good  lookout.  I  am  glad 
you  think  I  escaped  pretty  well. 

I  almost  believe  that  Jefferson  was  a  full  incarnation  of  Satan. 

290 


1859]     WASHINGTON'S  FAREWELL  ADDRESS 

It  has  been  in  the  course  of  writing  this  paper  that  I  have  come  to 
learn,  almost  to  know,  that  by  or  through  his  agents,  access  was  had 
to  some  of  Washington's  papers,  and  that  history  has  suffered  by  it. 
I  think  Mr.  Sparks's  paper  on  the  Farewell  Address  was  defective; 
but  I  shall  never  cease  to  be  thankful  to  him  for  preserving  copies 
of  Washington's  drafts.  It  is  much  to  be  feared  that  the  originals 
have  disappeared.  That  draft  and  Washington's  letters  of  15  May 
and  25  August,  1796,  are  immensely  important  documents  for  the 
history  of  that  day.  Mr.  Randall  has  tried,  I  think,  to  embalm  Jef 
ferson  with  the  myrrh  and  cassia  of  Washington's  good  opinion  to 
the  end;  but  these  letters  explode  the  pretension  thoroughly,  and 
the  draft  indignantly. 


291 


HORACE    BINNEY  MT.  79 


XII 

THE    EVE    OF    THE    CIVIL    WAR 

(1859-1861) 

DURING  most  of  his  life  Mr.  Binney  kept  up  a  large 
correspondence,  and  to  its  close,  though  his  "  love 
of  letter-writing,  once  a  very  sincere,  not  to  say  a 
passionate  one,"  had  gone  from  him,  he  still  had  a  few 
correspondents  in  whose  letters  he  took  keen  pleasure.  In 
writing  to  his  intimates,  he  expressed  himself  very  frankly 
about  people  and  events;  but,  being  averse  to  giving  pain, 
and  realizing  that  letters  often  expressed  opinions  which  the 
writer  might  afterwards  change,  he  was  opposed  to  the 
preservation  of  private  letters  and  from  time  to  time  de 
stroyed  those  which  he  had  received,  as  well  as  such  of  his 
own  letters  as  were  returned  to  him.  Hence  apparently  not 
a  single  letter  written  to  him  is  still  in  existence,  and,  while 
many  which  he  himself  wrote  remain,  most  of  them  were 
written  in  the  last  sixteen  years  of  his  life.  For  that  period 
they  furnished  the  chief  record,  and  the  more  important  ones 
are  given  in  the  pages  that  follow. 

When  Mr.  Binney 's  oldest  son  visited  Europe  in  1854, 
he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Sir  John  Taylor  Coleridge 
(then,  and  until  his  retirement  in  1858,  a  justice  of  the 
Queen's  Bench)  and  his  son,  afterwards  Lord  Chief  Justice 
of  England,  an  acquaintance  which  rapidly  developed  into 
very  warm  friendship.  After  his  return  he  sent  Sir  John 
copies  of  some  of  his  father's  writings.  Their  perusal  led  Sir 
John  to  write  to  Mr.  Binney  himself,  and  gradually  a  cor- 


1859]  CORRESPONDENCE 

respondence  sprang  up  between  them,  ceasing  only  at  Mr. 
Binney's  death.  Considering  that  the  writers  had  never 
actually  met,  this  correspondence  was  remarkably  free  from 
formality  and  reserve;  but  Mr.  Binney  was  on  his  part  pre 
disposed  to  friendship  with  the  judge,  remembering  very 
clearly  the  refined,  thoughtful  face  and  judicial  bearing, 
which  had  strongly  impressed  him  when  he  saw  Coleridge 
in  his  place  on  the  bench  twenty  years  before.  The  first  of 
the  following  letters  refers  to  Sir  John's  lecture  on  "  My 
Recollections  of  the  Circuit,"  which  was  afterwards  pub 
lished  in  the  American  Law  Register  for  March,  1861. 

(To  Sir  J.  T.  Coleridge.) 

PHILADELPHIA,  16  Nov.,  1859. 

I  thank  you  for  your  most  pleasing  lecture,  and  for  the  little 
note  which  came  with  it.  The  picture  in  each  was  most  agreeable. 
I  need  not  be  an  aruspex  to  see  that  it  is  a  good  sign  for  England 
to  have  the  writer  of  such  things  in  her  Privy  Council. 

I  was  not  as  well  prepared  for  Sir  W.  Follett  as  for  the  others 
you  describe,  except  Richardson,  who  was  unknown  to  me;  but  Fol- 
lett's  faculties  and  dispositions  are  so  well  discriminated,  that  I 
think  I  understand  him  now.  His  must  have  been  a  genius  for  the 
open  work  of  the  bar,  as  distinguished  from  the  chambers,  and  per 
haps  from  the  bench.  I  regret  that  I  did  not  see  or  hear  him  when 
I  was  in  London.  I  was  informed  by  an  acquaintance,  one  day,  that 
Norris  vs.  Lord  Melbourne  was  on,  and  hoped  the  next  morning  to 
go  over  and  take  my  chance  of  bringing  away  a  part  of  him;  but 
when  I  came  down  to  my  breakfast,  by  no  means  a  late  one,  I  found 
the  whole  trial,  verdict  and  all,  upon  the  table.  However  some  may 
sleep  in  that  world,  the  judge  certainly  did  not  sleep  over  his  work. 
Such  faculties  as  Sir  W.  Follett's  are  not  often  the  best  for  the  bench ; 
but  they  gather  an  immense  harvest  of  local  fame,  and  "  consols,"  at 
the  bar. 

Much  as  I  should  have  been  delighted  to  go  a  circuit  as  an 

293 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  79-80 

observer,  I  have  probably  been  more  so  in  my  chair,  in  reading  your 
summary  of  several  of  them.  I  suppose  some  change  must  have  come 
over  them  within  thirty  years,  in  state  perhaps,  but  I  hope  not  in 
the  graceful  unreserve  of  the  bench  with  the  bar,  at  proper  seasons. 
We  had  a  good  deal  more  of  both  formerly  than  we  have  now.  The 
popular  election  of  judges  is  a  horrible  leveller;  and  both  the  bench 
and  the  bar  seem  to  become  more  and  more  afraid  of  being  distin 
guished  as  a  corps.  Pray  hold  on  to  your  good  old  fashions  as  long 
as  you  can,  even  to  the  wigs,  now  you've  got  them.  It  is  a  wretched 
folly  to  part  with  any  of  the  symbols,  which  are  pretty  much  all  that 
would  deter  many  from  ruining  the  substance.  I  wish  England  well 
for  her  own  sake,  but  for  ours  fully  as  much.  In  the  law,  and  in  the 
administration  of  the  law,  we  look  to  her  constantly,  and  even  go  far 
beyond  her  when  she  sets  an  example  of  discarding  anything  which 
has  been  established.  There  is  our  danger,  and  yours  also. 

How  much  I  was  gratified  by  what  you  say  of  trial  by  judge 
and  jury.  A  prejudice  has  been  growing  against  trial  by  jury,  in 
all  parts  of  our  country,  where  either  the  predominance  of  the  popu 
lar  will  is  great,  or  the  courts  are  in  the  practice  of  leaving  the  evi 
dence  to  the  jury  without  a  charge,  and  stating  the  law  to  them  in 
an  abstract  or  hypothetical  way.  This  is  the  general  course  to  the 
south  of  Pennsylvania.  But  we  follow  the  English  practice  with 
great  advantage,  and  have  little  thought  of  exchanging  jury  trial 
for  anything  else.  It  is  only,  however,  as  trial  by  judge  and  jury 
that  it  has  its  great  value;  and  in  looking  at  other  countries,  I  incline 
to  regard  this  as  a  special  blessing  of  Heaven  to  the  English  race. 

Pray  send  me  again,  my  dear  sir,  with  the  consent  of  the  Privy 
Council,  such  another  lecture  and  such  another  note,  telling  me  of  the 
good  old  things  of  the  bar  and  of  the  good  new  things  also,  when 
grandchildren  are  playing  "  hide  and  seek"  among  the  bushes,  and 
the  grandfather  in  his  study  is  working  out  "  seek  and  shew"  for  the 
profit  and  refreshment  of  both  ages.  Your  speech  at  Exeter  on  the 
subject  of  the  Oxford  Examinations  goes  demonstrably  to  the  true 
foundation,  both  in  science  and  in  letters.  The  whole  difference 
between  finished  and  unfinished  men  depends  upon  the  depths  to  which 

294 


1859-60]  CORRESPONDENCE 

boys  are  made  to  go  in  the  elements  between  ten  and  eighteen.  What 
is  thoroughly  mastered  then  is  never  lost,  and  no  labour  of  the  intel 
lect  afterwards  can  supply  its  place.  Your  uncle's  insistent  recom 
mendation  of  the  fiat's  and  ^e's  is  the  true  way.  I  was  not  as  well 
birched  into  it  myself  as  I  ought  to  have  been,  but  I  endeavoured  to 
do  better  by  my  boys.  .  .  . 

(To  J.  C.  Hamilton,  Esq.) 

PHILADA.,  26  Jan.,  1860. 

.  .  .  There  are  some  remarks  upon  the  [Farewell  Address] 
Inquiry  which  you  may  not  meet,  as  they  are  in  a  Massachusetts 
quarterly  journal,  called  the  Christian  Examiner,  for  January,  1860. 
The  paper  is  equally  strong  as  the  North  American  [Review]  l  in 
adopting  my  conclusions,  but  is  stronger  than  any  paper  I  have  read 
in  at  least  one  of  its  expressions  in  regard  to  your  father,  whom  it 
describes  as,  at  the  date  of  the  Farewell  Address,  "  the  greatest  man 
then  living  in  America."  These  things  may  bring  the  readers  of  the 
day  to  a  better  acquaintance  with  your  father,  through  your  book 
and  his  writings.  I  regard  him  myself  as  the  very  first  man  of  the 
age,  and,  indeed,  of  any  age,  in  the  supremacy  of  his  intellect,  upon 
all  questions  concerning  practical  government  and  policy;  and  in 
this  relation  I  agree  with  the  writer  in  the  Examiner. 

You  may  have  seen  the  enclosed  from  the  National  Intelli 
gencer.  It  is  a  poor  thing,  because  while  it  affects  to  value  the  work,2 
it  really  undervalues  it  by  your  maniere  de  voir.  It  is  your  manner 
of  presenting,  and  not  your  manner  of  seeing,  that  gives  the  work 
its  character ;  for  when  you  present,  others,  if  they  have  eyes,  must 
see  as  you  do — unless  they  are  Virginians.  And  here  is  the  difficulty 
with  the  National  Intelligencer.  They  are  so  near  to  that  atmosphere 
as  to  imbibe  it  in  a  strong  mixture  with  other  air,  and  the  mass  of 
their  readers  is  altogether  living  in  it ;  and  their  paper  shows  their 

1  The  issue  of  January,  1860,  containing  a  review  of  the  Inquiry  and  of  the 
Leaders  of  the  Old  Bar. 

*  Mr.  Hamilton's  History  of  the  Republic,  the  fifth  volume  of  which  had 

recently  appeared. 

295 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^ET.  80 


consciousness  of  it.  I  know  little  of  S[eaton],  but  I  like  G[ales], 
who  is  thoroughly  reclaimed  from  Jefferson,  but  not  so  thoroughly 
from  Madison.  When  he  is  within  the  range  of  the  Virginia  influ 
ence  his  paper  is  feeble,  but  it  is  never  so  strong  as  when  it  is  showing 
up  the  consequences  of  Democratic  excesses.  .  .  . 

The  only  paper  I  wrote  upon  Chief  Justice  Marshall  was  the 
eulogy  I  read  at  the  request  of  the  city  in  1836.  I  thought  you  pos 
sessed  that;  but  if  you  do  not,  I  cannot  help  you,  and  I  believe  it  is 
out  of  print.  The  Supreme  Court  have  tried,  in  the  Dred  Scott  case, 
to  put  him  out  of  print,  so  as  never  to  have  another  edition  of  him; 
but  I  hope  it  will  never  be  the  doctrine  of  this  nation  that  whatever 
the  Supreme  Court  shall  from  time  to  time,  backward  and  forward, 
say  is  our  Constitution,  that  it  is.  When  that  Court  has  once  settled 
its  meaning,  that  we  must  abide  by,  or  we  can  abide  by  nothing. 

From  1860  to  1872  Mr.  Binney's  most  frequent  corre 
spondent  was  Dr.  Francis  Lieber,  a  Prussian  by  birth,  who  as 
a  young  boy  had  fought  and  been  wounded  at  Waterloo, 
and  whose  liberal  views  had  compelled  him  to  seek  an  asylum 
in  the  United  States  in  1827.  He  had  first  met  Mr.  Binney 
in  Washington  in  1833.  He  resided  for  some  time  in  the 
South,  but  ultimately  became  Professor  of  History  and 
Political  Science  in  Columbia  College.  The  correspondence 
ceased  only  at  Dr.  Lieber'  s  death. 

(To  Dr.  Lieber.) 

PHILADA.,  Feb.  8,  1860. 

.  .  .  The  safer  principle  to  adopt  in  regard  to  the  Dred  Scott 
case,  I  think,  is,  that  when  the  Constitution  has  been  interpreted  on 
a  contested  point,  by  the  Supreme  Court,  and  that  interpretation 
practically  followed  for  more  than  half  a  century,  no  contrary  decision 
by  the  same  court  can  have  the  least  authority  whatever.  This  is 
the  specific  rule  that  I  would  apply. 

There  is  no  Constitution  without  it.     If  the  Dred  Scott  case  is 


1860]  DRED    SCOTT     CASE 

followed,  we  have  no  unchanging  Constitution  whatever.  It  will  be 
"  alia  lex  Roma,  alia  Athenis,  alia  nunc,  alia  posthac."  Cicero  had 
no  notion  of  such  a  law. 

They  talk  of  overruling  the  former  decisions  and  practice. 
Whoever  heard  of  such  a  thing  being  done  by  the  same  tribunal? 
How  can  it  overrule  its  own  body,  confirmed  by  the  decisions  of  Presi 
dents  over  and  over  again,  and  by  the  laws  of  the  Representatives 
of  the  people?  The  judges  have  done  an  awful  thing,  as  I  have 
already  told  you ;  and  my  word  for  it,  it  will  not  stand  one  moment 
if  this  government  stands.  You  know  how  the  Amphictyonic  Council 
fell  when  it  went  into  politics  and  decided  corruptly  between  Sparta 
and  Thebes.  So  it  will  be  here,  unless  the  Dred  Scott  case  is  brushed 
away.  .  .  . 

(To  J.  C.  Hamilton,  Esq.) 

PHILADA.,  Feb.  8,  1860. 

...  I  am  glad  the  sixth  [volume]  is  going  to  press,  and 
shall  look  eagerly  for  it.  You  apprehend  that  it  may  be  too  full  of 
the  British  treaty ;  but  I  regard  your  father's  writings  on  that  sub 
ject  as  his  capo  a"  opera  of  statesmanship;  and  it  is  the  defence  of 
that  treaty  which  shows  his  finish  as  a  patriot  as  well  as  a  politician; 
for  it  was  he  who  should  have  made  it,  and  would,  if  he  had  been  sent, 
have  made  a  better.  He  was  the  man,  I  think,  who  would  personally 
have  so  satisfied  the  British  Minister  of  the  necessity  and  advantage 
of  keeping  the  British  and  American  governments  together  as  a  per 
petual  buttress  against  both  despotism  and  licentiousness,  that  the 
treaty  would  have  provided  against  all  the  causes  which  in  the  change 
of  parties  produced  the  war  of  1812.  The  British  contributed  more 
to  that  war  than  they  ought  to  have  done ;  and,  they  would  have 
avoided  this  if  your  father  had  thoroughly  removed  causes  of  jealousy, 
as  I  believe  he  would  have  done  much  better  than  Jay.  How  we  should 
have  fared  in  his  absence  is  the  only  question.  His  great  papers  on 
the  subject  of  that  treaty  are  those  which  first  taught  me  the  magni 
tude  of  his  powers  and  resources.  How  long  will  you  be  in  press 
with  the  sixth?  I  count  the  days.  .  .  . 

297 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^T.  80 


(To  Dr.  Lieber.) 

PHILADA.,  Feb.  18,  1860. 

.  .  .  You  never  wrote  a  more  incontestable  truth  than  that 
generally  democracy  has  nothing  to  do  with  liberty.  The  first  movers 
of  the  Democratic  party  in  this  country  may  have  thought  that  they 
were  opposing  monarchical  tendencies,  but  it  is  more  charitable  than 
sensible  to  think  so;  and  so  far  they  may  have  had  the  perpetuation 
of  liberty  in  view.  But  that  fancy,  whether  real  or  simulated,  soon 
passed  away  ;  and  from  the  time  the  Democratic  party  attained  power, 
which  it  has  held  continuously  since,  notwithstanding  occasional  losses 
of  the  Presidency,  its  aspiration  has  been  for  power;  and  liberty  of 
action,  of  speech,  of  thought,  has  every  day  been  more  and  more 
tramelled  or  impaired,  until  the  word,  in  the  general  apprehension 
of  the  people,  means  power,  and  nothing  else  ;  and  that  is  the  reason 
why  so  many  swell  its  ranks.  It  is  not  power  in  the  government,  nor 
in  the  law,  nor  wholly  in  the  party  ;  but  it  is  power  in  the  individuals 
who  form  the  party;  power  to  partake  of  the  party  strength,  to 
seize  on  personal  profits  and  advantages,  to  suppress  or  supersede 
those  who  are  their  rivals  with  the  better  claims  of  integrity,  knowl 
edge,  and  deference  for  the  principles  of  liberty.  You  never  said  a 
truer  word,  nor  was  it  ever  more  strikingly  exemplified  than  in  this 
land.  For  sixty  years  I  have  seen  this  accursed  love  of  power,  de 
bauching  the  mature  and  the  young,  until  at  length  a  large  portion 
of  the  anti-Democratic  party  has  been  more  than  half  spoiled  by  it. 
Look  at  what  it  has  done  by  the  agency  or  consent  of  nearly  all 
parties,  in  the  overthrow  of  judicial  tenure,  in  stripping  the  judges 
of  power  to  appoint  their  own  clerks  or  prothonotaries,  in  bringing 
every  office  down  to  the  individual  vote  and  claim  of  every  man,  in 
lifting  up  every  man  of  every  sort  to  clutch  at  every  office  or  position 
that  will  increase  his  own  power,  and  to  calumniate  and  revile  every 
one  not  of  his  party  as  an  enemy  of  liberty.  I  am  sick  of  it,  and 
don't  wonder  that  you  are  sad.  I  cannot  ask  you  even  to  be  of  good 
courage,  except  upon  the  consideration,  now  very  present  with  me, 
that  life  is  but  a  journey,  and  that  every  man  should  try  to  do  his 

298 


1860]     READING  THE  FAREWELL  ADDRESS 

best  in  it,  seeing  that  he  is  to  account  for  what  he  has  done  at  his 
journey's  end. 

I  cannot  write  upon  the  Dred  Scott  case.  ...  I  doubt  whether 
any  man's  opinion  about  it  as  a  constitutional  result  is  wanted  or 
ever  will  be  wanted.  It  is  a  political  or  party  result.  Nobody  who 
reasons  upon  legal  principles  can  want  anything  after  Judge  Curtis's 
opinion;  and  that  opinion  is  just  as  safe  for  the  South  as  for  the 
North.  The  opinion  of  Mr.  Taney,  on  the  contrary,  if  there  shall 
permanently  remain  anything  upon  which  it  can  act,  will  divide  this 
country  into  irreconcilable  sections,  while  it  dishonours  the  men  of  the 
Revolution,  the  men  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  Constitution  itself. 
Popular  sovereignty,  in  Mr.  Douglas's  meaning,  is  not  a  nonsense 
of  the  highest  altitude  while  we  have  the  Dred  Scott  logic  of  Mr. 
Taney  to  compare  it  with.  Douglas  is  in  the  heavens,  but  not  in  the 
seventh  heaven  of  reasoning  lunatics. 

There,  again,  I  am  getting  a  little  lunatic  myself,  so  farewell. 

One  result  of  Mr.  Binney's  book  on  the  Farewell  Ad 
dress  was  a  request  to  read  the  Address  before  the  Councils 
of  Philadelphia  on  the  next  anniversary  of  Washington's 
birth ;  and  it  was  a  very  gratifying  recognition  of  the  value 
of  his  recent  investigations  to  find  a  copy  of  his  book  upon 
the  table,  as  containing  the  text  from  which  he  was  to  read. 
The  weight  of  his  fourscore  years  did  not  affect  the  firm 
ness  and  expression  of  his  voice,  and  as  he  read  the  wise  and 
lofty  admonitions,  every  one  of  which  was  stamped  alike 
upon  his  memory  and  his  heart,  and  whose  warning  notes 
sounded  more  solemn  than  ever  amidst  the  threatening  mur 
murs  of  discord  and  rebellion,  destined  soon  to  be  succeeded 
by  the  clash  of  arms,  he  seemed,  to  quote  from  a  journalist 
of  the  day,  "  to  have  become  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  Wash 
ington.  He  looked  like  Washington"  himself.  At  the  end 
of  his  reading  the  audience  remained  in  expectant  silence, 
and  he  at  length  said,  "  Thus  closes  the  noblest  compendium 

299 


HORACE    BINNEY  MT.  80 


of  fatherly  affection,  patriotism,  and  political  wisdom  the 
world  has  ever  seen.  No  words  of  mine  are  fit  to  stand 
beside  it." 

(To  J.  C.  Hamilton,  Esq.) 

PHILADA.,  16  May,  1860. 

...  But  what  shall  I  say  in  regard  to  the  portion  of  Vol.  VI. 
which  you  last  sent  me?  I  do  not  feel  like  a  culprit,  for  some  moral 
perverseness  is  necessary  to  constitute  that  condition;  but  I  feel  like 
a  stupid,  stolid,  unthinking  boy;  for,  having  kept  the  roll  in  my 
fire-proof  with  all  care  until  several  days  after  the  sixth  volume  had 
been  received  and  read,  I  took  them  from  their  pigeon-hole,  and,  just 
as  I  do  with  my  own  proof-sheets  after  the  pamphlet  or  book  has 
been  printed,  deliberately  and  consciously  put  the  roll  into  the  fire 
and  remained  gazing  at  it  until  the  whole  was  burned  up,  that  no  part 
might  go  up  the  chimney  unburnt.  I  know  nothing  in  my  life  like 
it,  except  one  instance,  when  old  Mrs.  Boudinot,  the  good  wife  of 
Elias  Boudinot,  at  an  oyster-supper  in  her  daughter's  house,  being 
entirely  mastered  by  a  large  oyster  which  refused  to  yield  to  her  knife, 
I  most  politely  proposed  to  assist  her,  took  the  oyster  from  her  plate, 
went  at  it,  and  kept  at  it  for  two  minutes,  while  a  lady  next  me  talked 
me  out  of  all  recollection  of  the  proprietor  of  the  shell,  —  Mrs.  Bou 
dinot,  I  understood,  looking  at  me  all  the  time  with  both  her  eyes. 
When  the  parley  with  the  neighbour  lady  ceased,  I  resumed  my  task, 
opened  the  shell,  took  a  magnificent  oyster  from  it,  and,  holding  it 
under  survey  for  a  moment  or  two  on  my  fork,  deliberately  raised  it 
to  my  mouth  and  swallowed  it  !  !  Mrs.  Boudinot's  "  admirably  done," 
and  the  shout  of  the  whole  table  of  friends,  who  had  taken  in  the 
whole  scene,  made  very  much  the  same  impression  upon  me  as  the 
request  in  your  letter  to  send  the  roll  back.  You  can't  have  the  shell, 
my  dear  sir.  I  swallowed  the  oyster  and  calcined  the  shell.  What 
can  I  do?  I  verily  believe  your  case  is  better  than  Mrs.  Boudinot's, 
for  you  have  a  better  impression;  whereas  she  retained  nothing  but 
the  visual  impression  of  the  oyster  as  it  was  departing  forever  from 
her.  Will  you  please  to  beat  me  with  a  cudgel?  I  wish  you  could 

300 


1860]     WASHINGTON'S  FAREWELL  ADDRESS 

with  all  my  heart;  it  would  transfer  the  bruise  from  my  behaviour 
to  my  bones.  But  I  believe  or  fear  there  is  no  remedy  for  either  you 
or  myself.  Forgive  me.  I  will  do  better  the  next  time.  .  .  . 

(To  Sir  J.  T.  Coleridge.) 

PHILADELPHIA,  21  May,  1860. 

The  Quarterly  Review  for  April  arrived  here  last  week,  and 
your  article,  on  the  Leaders  and  Farewell  Address,  has  been  read  with 
great  satisfaction  by  myself,  by  my  wife  and  children,  and  by  several 
of  our  friends.  The  gratification  has  been  universal;  and  not  more, 
nor  so  much,  I  must  say,  from  its  bearing  upon  myself  than  on  account 
of  the  kind  feelings  and  artistic  skill  of  the  writer.  Little  as  I  antici 
pated,  or,  indeed,  thought,  of  any  foreign  notice  when  I  printed  these 
papers, — even  apprehensive  of  it  when  you  informed  me  of  your 
purpose, — I  confess  that  I  now  feel  a  very  high  gratification.  It  is 
greater  than  I  should  have  felt  if  it  had  been  done  by  any  other  per 
son,  or  in  any  other  tone  or  manner.  It  is  just  the  thing  in  all  points 
that  I  should  have  desired  if  I  had  possessed  the  sagacity  to  desire  it ; 
and  it  enables  me  to  establish  your  general  rule,  that  a  reviewer  never 
satisfies  a  reviews  by  averring  conscientiously  that  I  am  the  proving 
exception. 

I  concur  even  in  your  regret  that  Washington  was  not  the 
author  altogether  of  the  Farewell  Address,  and  have  felt  that  regret 
for  many  years,  though  surrounded  by  a  universal  conviction  among 
reading  men  that  this  was  not  the  fact,  and  by  a  general  indifference 
about  it. 

One  of  the  motives  of  my  publication  appears  plainly  enough 
in  the  preface  to  it, — to  remove  an  aspersion  from  Hamilton ;  and  it 
was  personally  a  very  strong  one  with  me.  But  there  was  another, 
which  I  could  not  have  alleged  publicly  without  some  appearance  of 
vanity  or  other  weakness,  and  yet  I  do  not  hesitate  to  state  it  to  you. 

My  mother's  residence,  when  I  left  Philadelphia  for  college, 
was  opposite  to  Washington's  on  the  same  street,  and  it  immediately 
adjoined  Hamilton's  on  the  same  side  of  the  way;  and  the  boyish 
admiration  of  both  these  great  neighbours  went  with  me  to  Cam- 

301 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JBx.  80 

bridge,  and  increased  with  me.  They  were  never  afterwards  sepa 
rated  in  my  affection  and  regard ;  and  when  I  came  to  know  as  I  did, 
a  few  months  before  I  wrote  the  essay,  that  the  papers  which  proved 
Hamilton's  material  agency  in  the  composition  of  the  Farewell  Ad 
dress  were,  most  of  them,  in  print,  and  that  the  rest  must  be  in  a 
short  time,  and  that  thus  all  the  facts  could  come  out,  I  fancied  that 
my  affection  for  both  would  guide  my  pen  more  safely  in  the  distribu 
tion  of  the  parts  than  the  superior  intelligence  of  another  person. 
From  a  want  of  this  feeling,  or  from  a  great  inequality  of  it  towards 
the  respective  parties,  other  persons  had  already  disfigured  the  case, 
to  the  unjust  detriment  of  Hamilton;  and  I  had  a  private  reason  for 
apprehending  that  a  bias  the  other  way  might  result  in  a  similar 
injustice  to  Washington;  and  to  meet  and,  as  it  were,  deprive  a 
subsequent  writer  of  such  a  use  of  the  facts,  I  even  accelerated  the 
writing  and  publication  of  the  essay,  more,  indeed,  than  I  ought  to 
have  done,  as  one  of  the  notes  shews,  and,  as  I  have  become  sensi 
ble,  is  shewn  by  many  parts  of  it.  I  could  write  it  over  again  with 
some  improvements,  I  think;  but  I  am  told  that  I  could  not  better 
manifest  my  warm  regard  for  both  parties,  and  especially  for 
Washington. 

Still,  I  feel  the  same  regret  which  you  have  expressed;  and 
had  Mr.  Jay  and  Mr.  Sparks  not  written  at  all  upon  the  subject,  or 
not  written  what  undoubtedly  hurt  the  character  of  Hamilton,  in  a 
point  in  which  he  was  remarkably  superior  to  all  the  ambitious  public 
men  of  his  day,  I  should  probably  never  have  written  a  word  about  it. 
Mr.  Adams's  letter  to  Dr.  Rush  would  have  been  no  temptation  to 
me,  because  his  insinuation  that  all  Washington's  speeches  as  well  as 
the  Farewell  Address  were  written  by  somebody  else  was  too  extrava 
gant  to  make  any  general  impression. 

I  thank  you  again,  my  dear  sir,  from  my  heart.  Perhaps  you 
do  not  know  our  country  perfectly  when  you  regret,  for  my  own  sake, 
that  I  have  not  been  a  judge.3  In  1827,  when  Chief  Justice  Tilgh- 
man  died,  the  bar  of  Philadelphia  requested  the  governor  of  Penn- 


*  This  refers  to  a  statement  in  the  Quarterly  Review. 
302 


1860]     WASHINGTON'S  FAREWELL  ADDRESS 

sylvania  to  appoint  me  chief  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court;  and  I 
should  have  both  willingly  and  thankfully  accepted  the  office  if  it  had 
been  offered.  But  the  governor  was  a  Democrat,  and  I,  as  you  rightly 
suppose,  was  not.  He  sent  me  a  commission  as  puisne  judge  of  the 
same  court,  which  I  declined.  If  Mr.  Adams  had  been  President 
when  Judge  Washington  died,  or,  to  speak  more  accurately,  if  Wash 
ington  had  died  when  Adams  was  President,  it  was  his  intention  to 
nominate  me  for  a  seat  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 
But  Washington  survived  until  Jackson  became  President ;  and  then 
the  Pennsylvania  categories  occurred, — I  was  not  a  Democrat  and 
he  was.  I  have  been  offered  judicial  commissions  since  that  time, 
both  from  the  President  and  the  governor  of  Pennsylvania;  but  I 
declined  them.  The  office  I  was  ready  to  accept,  chief  justice  of 
Pennsylvania,  was  not  offered;  and  yet  if  it  had  been  offered  and 
accepted,  I  must  have  given  it  up  in  1838,  for  I  think  that  I  could 
not  have  held  judicial  office  for  a  day,  except  under  the  tenure  of 
good  behaviour.  Upon  the  whole,  I  think  it  best  for  myself  that  I 
have  not  been  a  judge.  .  .  . 

(To  the  same.) 

PHILADELPHIA,  15  June,  1860. 

Pray  do  not  write,  or  think,  of  wearying  me  with  your  letters, 
or  of  my  wishing  you  to  be  anywhere  but  where  you  are,  and  as  you 
are,  while  I  live,  to  refresh  me  with  them.  I  have  no  greater  anticipa 
tion  of  pleasure  than  to  see  your  handwriting  on  the  back  of  a  fresh 
letter,  nor  any  greater  enjoyment  than  to  open  and  read  it.  I  have 
reason  to  be  thankful  for  a  great  many  blessings,  but  this,  of  inter 
course  with  you  by  letter,  so  entirely  unprepared  by  me,  seems  to  be 
so  providential  a  supplement  to  my  decaying  enjoyments,  by  the 
Great  Being  who  is  over  all,  that  I  can  refer  it  to  no  other  cause. 
I  have  several  very  good  correspondents, — one  only  remaining  of  my 
college  classmates,  85,  but  still  having  a  fresh  heart  and  a  fine  intel 
lect, — and  I  drop  none  of  them  myself ;  they  have  dropped  only  too 
fast  by  death.  But  your  letters  bring  me  back  to  friends  who  left 
the  world  thirty  and  forty  years  ago.  I  will  not  say  by  what  char- 

303 


HORACE    BINNEY  [MT.  80 

acteristics  you  recall  them,  but  I  repeat,  do  not  permit  yourself  to 
think  of  wearying  me  with  your  letters.  .  .  . 

I  am  very  glad  that  you  liked  Marshall  and  Tilghman,  and 
that  I  did  not  so  mar  them  by  my  account  of  them  as  to  prevent  your 
seeing  that  they  were  worthy  of  some  commemoration.  There  were 
many  men  of  their  day  who  had  a  considerable  share  of  their  qualities, 
— the  fruit,  no  doubt,  of  the  circumstances  to  which  you  allude ;  but 
they  were  distinguished,  with  such  men  around  them,  by  the  large 
proportion  in  which  they  possessed  the  love  of  good,  of  justice, 
uprightness,  order,  simplicity  of  life  and  faith.  I  neither  find 
nor  hear  of  such  men  now  in  high  place.  They  live,  I  hope,  to  be 
drawn  out  again  in  case  of  need ;  but  the  present  training  is,  I  fear, 
defective. 

Dr.  Moore,  of  our  church,  told  me  that  when  he  first  went  to 
the  Diocese  of  Virginia,  after  his  consecration  as  bishop,  he  found  that 
the  gentlemen  of  Richmond,  well  educated  and  highly  respectable 
men,  on  the  outside  of  the  church  perhaps,  were  restive  under  the 
reading  of  the  ante-communion  service  on  every  Lord's  day.  One  or 
more  of  them  begged  him  to  let  it  be  confined  to  communion  days, 
and  he  asked  Marshall  what  he  thought  of  it.  "  Oh,  give  them  the 
whole  of  it,  always.  If  they  don't  like  it  now,  they  ought  to  like  it, 
and  I  think  so  well  of  them  that  I  believe  they  will  like  it  in  the  end." 
And  the  bishop  persevered,  with  good  effect.  One  of  the  best  proofs 
of  his  virtue  is  that  Jefferson  had  a  mortal  hatred  of  him ;  and  as  far 
as  Marshall's  pure  nature  permitted,  he  reciprocated  the  aversion. 
When  Hamilton,  in  1801,  exerted  himself  with  all  his  correspondents 
to  prevent  the  Federalists  from  making  Burr  President,  and  to  give 
their  votes  in  the  House  of  Representatives  to  Jefferson,  as  the  less 
dangerous  man  for  the  country,  he  wrote  to  Marshall  asking  him  to 
use  his  influence  to  the  same  end.  Marshall  replied  that  he  agreed  to 
his  arguments,  but  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  give  his  assistance. 
That  was  too  much  for  him. 

We  are  on  the  eve  of  a  great  struggle  in  the  Democratic  party, 
which  threatens  to  divide  the  Democracy  of  the  slave  States  from 
that  of  the  North,  the  union  of  the  two  having  for  many  years  given 

304 


1860]  EVE    OF    THE    CIVIL   WAR 

them  a  very  pernicious  ascendency  in  the  government.  I  hope  you 
will  excuse  me  for  desiring  that  the  breach  may  become  irreparable. 
The  Democratic  Convention  at  Charleston,  in  April,  failed  to  agree, 
and  several  of  the  Southern  States  seceded,  and  adjourned  to  meet  at 
Richmond  a  few  days  ago.  The  Northern  portion  adjourned  to 
meet  at  Baltimore  on  the  18th,  Monday  next.  I  shall  not  learn  the 
result  in  time  for  this  steamer;  but  if  the  Northern  (Douglas)  party 
shall  hold  on  to  their  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  I  will  inform  you 
of  the  result,  and  give  you  a  little  sketch  of  our  parties,  which  will 
make  American  politics  more  intelligible  to  you,  if  you  ever  attend  to 
them.  An  adherence  by  the  Northern  Democracy  to  Douglas  will, 
according  to  present  appearances,  sunder  these  two  great  divisions 
for  a  long  time, — I  hope  forever.  The  Democracy  of  the  South  is 
better  disposed  to  good  government  in  general  than  the  Democracy 
of  the  North;  but  they  are  incurably  vitiated  upon  the  subject  of 
slavery,  and  bent  upon  making  it  a  federal  institution,  till  it  stands 
in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  in  equipoise  with  the  free 
States.  .  .  . 

(To  J.  C.  Hamilton,  Esq.) 

PHILADA.,  6  July,  I860. 

I  am  quite  obliged  to  your  daughter  for  copying,  in  her  clear 
and  ladylike  character  of  hand,  the  remarks  from  the  Daily  Evening 
Traveller.  .  .  .  My  own  impression  of  the  work,  with  less  than  the 
depth  in  which  it  has  gone  in  me,  is  obviously  in  the  writer, — that  the 
character  of  your  father,  his  genius  for  government,  the  impression 
he  made  upon  this  government,  both  in  Constitution  and  administra 
tion,  in  connexion  with  a  pure  system  of  political  morals,  is  thor 
oughly  brought  out  by  it,  and  exhibited  for  permanent  instruction 
and  use.  All  future  history  of  his  period  must  be  founded  upon 
your  exhibition  of  the  epoch,  in  the  person  and  productions  of  the 
first  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  Editors  of  papers  may  say  what 
they  please  at  this  day  of  your  party  and  personal  predilections,  but 
the  day  is  nearer  now  at  hand  than  I  once  thought  it  ever  would  be 
when,  by  your  book,  all  men  who  form  their  opinions  upon  evidence 
and  reflection  will  agree  that  your  father's  genius,  talents,  forecast, 

20  305 


HORACE    BINNEY  MT.  80 


political  wisdom,  and  integrity  are  indelibly  stamped  upon  the  public 
acts  of  his  time,  in  which  he  had  the  principal  part;  and  that  the 
good  which  remains  to  us  was  mainly  his,  and  the  evil  what  he  laboured 
to  prevent  the  enemies  of  good  government  from  perpetrating.  I 
value  the  work  almost  as  much  for  the  justice  it  has  done  to  Jefferson 
as  for  the  justice  it  has  done  to  your  father,  and  for  the  unimpeach 
able  character  of  your  evidence  as  for  its  conclusiveness.  He  tells  his 
own  history,  Jefferson  tells  his  own,  Madison  tells  his,  Adams  tells 
his;  but  in  Hamilton's  uniformity  —  straight,  elevated,  always  lead 
ing  upward  —  and  in  their  diversity  —  sometimes  tortuous  and  almost 
always  selfish,  in  one  or  two  of  them  often  mean  and  despicable  —  the 
truth  comes  out  with  equal  relief  and  strength  as  to  all.  Though 
there  is  little  formal  portraiture  in  the  work,  —  and  I  hope  there  will 
be  none,  —  the  real  portraits  in  it  are  innumerable  and  excellent,  from 
the  great  full-length  of  your  father  down  to  the  shadows  on  the  wall 
which  are  flitting  at  his  side.  I  almost  envy  you  the  satisfaction  of 
writing  such  an  imperishable  history  of  such  a  father. 

There  is  no  great  probability  that  I  shall  again  visit  Saratoga, 
much  as  it  would  delight  me  to  be  your  guest  and  to  know  your  chil 
dren  who  are  about  you.  The  foot  of  time  has  ceased  with  me  to  be 
"  inaudible."  I  hear  all  his  footsteps,  and  they  are  quicker  and 
quicker,  in  nameless  directions  towards  me  and  around  me.  None  of 
them,  however,  alarm  or  shake  me  ;  nor  do  I  fear  that  in  their  nearest 
approach  to  me  they  will  disturb  in  the  least  my  love  of  what  is  true, 
good,  worthy,  or  beautiful.  .  .  . 

(To  the  same.) 

PHILADA.,  7  Sept.,  1860. 

...  I  have  had  but  one  political  view  of  our  parties  all  my 
life.  The  South  first  debauched  our  people  to  Democracy.  Jefferson 
was  not  in  this  the  leader  more  than  the  follower.  It  is  inseparable 
from  the  institution  of  slavery.  The  masters  have  the  spirit  of  ruling 
in  them,  as  it  regards  their  slaves,  and  will  brook  no  rule  but  their 
own.  The  South  has  therefore  promoted  constantly  the  enfeeblement 
of  the  Federal  government  by  interpretation,  by  internal  policy,  by 

306 


1860]  EVE    OF    THE    CIVIL    WAR 

arrogance  in  the  States.  To  this  effect  she  has  promoted  Democracy 
to  the  North,  and  has  combined  as  one  State  to  lead  the  general  De 
mocracy,  by  gratifying  the  venal  motives  and  passions  of  Northern 
demagogues,  and  reserving  for  her  statesmen  the  higher  sphere  of 
directing  the  public  administration.  She  has  never  been  covetous  of 
office,  but  always  of  ruling  the  appointing  power.  Her  ambition  is 
not  unworthy  of  praise;  but  while  she  has  cultivated  the  influence 
of  men  of  talents  and  education  at  home,  she  has  assisted  the  Democ 
racy  at  the  North  to  suppress  such  men,  or  to  deny  them  all  important 
share  in  the  government.  She  has  introduced  a  standard  of  politics 
and  political  morality  which  gentlemen  cannot  live  by;  and  they 
must  remain  in  their  cocoons,  therefore,  or  renounce  their  honest 
convictions  by  becoming  incorporated  with  them. 

And  now,  when  for  the  first  time  the  institution  of  the  South, 
which  can  never  go  to  the  free  labour  Western  States,  nor  come  to 
the  free  North,  has  caused  a  split,  which,  if  established,  will  give  the 
truly  republican  men  of  the  North  and  West  the  opportunity  of 
bringing  honest  men  and  sound  Federal  politics — I  mean  sound  and 
constitutional  for  the  Union — into  the  general  administration,  the 
Bell  and  Everett  Whigs — the  Lord  forgive  them — come  in  to  assist 
one  of  the  Democratic  sections  to  get  the  ascendency,  and,  as  it  were, 
to  drive  the  Republican  wedge  out  of  the  log,  that  wedge,  if  it  be 
good  for  nothing  else,  being  good  enough  to  split  the  Democratic  log 
and,  in  my  opinion,  to  keep  it  split.  If  Lincoln  succeeds,  the  South 
will  not  think  of  going  out  of  the  Union;  but  whether  they  think  it 
or  not,  they  will  go  out  of  the  rule  of  the  Union,  and  that  I  most 
heartily  desire.  Both  the  policy  of  the  South  and  the  bearing  of  their 
public  men  are  intolerable  to  me.  I  think  their  bearing  must  be  so 
to  every  man  at  the  North  who  wears  a  clean  shirt  preferably  to  a 
dirty  one.  And  their  institution  will  keep  it  so.  They  have  got  now 
to  the  very  top  of  their  brag,  and  those  who  now  give  way  for  fear 
of  the  Union,  are  the  doughfaces  of  John  Randolph,  if  there  are 
such  in  the  country. 

Write  me  when  you  come  back,  if  you  go;  and  see  me  as  you 
promise  in  the  autumn. 

307 


HORACE    BINNEY  [MT.  80 

(To  Sir  J.  T.  Coleridge.) 

PHILADELPHIA,  20  Nov.,  1860. 

Your  very  kind  letter  of  the  22  Oct.  and  the  lecture  on  public 
schools,  with  the  Guardians,  have  given  me  very  great  pleasure,  and 
have  been  a  banquet  to  my  ladies.  I  am  not  insensible  to  the  good 
opinion  of  such  a  man  as  your  son,  nor  to  such  praise  as  his.  There 
is  apparent  in  both  his  reviews  of  Mr.  Ruskin's  last  volume  and  of  my 
pamphlets  a  conscientiousness  which  I  regard  as  the  only  safe  gov 
ernor  in  life  of  either  learning  or  accomplishments;  and  though,  of 
course,  I  think  him  to  have  been  in  some  degree  influenced  by  personal 
relations  in  what  he  has  said  of  me,  yet  I  cannot  help  thinking  rather 
better  of  myself  because  he  has  said  it. 

The  paper  on  Ruskin  is  admirable.  I  have  not  been  as  partial 
to  Ruskin's  writings  as  some  of  my  friends,  and  particularly  a  highly 
gifted  son  of  my  sister,  who  bore  my  name,  and  who  died  a  few  years 
since  in  France.  He  thought  him  a  leader  in  an  important  revolution 
in  art-criticism  and  painting,  and  that  he  was  sure  to  leave  his  mark 
upon  the  age.  I  have  little  knowledge  of  painting,  but  a  strong 
general  love  of  it ;  and  as  it  happens  where  this  is  the  character  of  a 
man's  condition  in  regard  to  the  other  sex,  my  judgment  is  probably 
not  very  discriminative.  But  being  habitually  averse  to  extremes, 
whether  in  doctrine  or  measures,  as  they  generally  pass  into  extrava 
gances,  I  have  paused  at  much  that  I  have  read  in  Mr.  Ruskin.  Our 
generalizations  are  so  often  imperfect,  at  least  when  we  have  not 
definitions  or  axioms  to  guide  us,  that  we  ought  to  keep  our  con 
clusions  farther  away  from  a  universal  result  than  he  does,  if  we 
mean  to  be  safe  in  taste,  or  politics,  or,  indeed,  in  anything.  Your 
son  has  very  skilfully  touched  Mr.  Ruskin's  extravagances,  while  at 
the  same  time  he  has  shewn  a  lively  sympathy  with  some  of  his  re 
markable  beauties.  It  is  decidedly  an  honest  and  fearless  criticism, 
as  well  as  candid  and  appreciating,  and  manifests  great  ability  as  a 
critic.  It  ought  to  do  good  to  the  writer ;  but  there  are  some  wits  so 
nearly  allied  to  madness,  that  there  is  no  answering  for  the  prescrip 
tion  beforehand.  .  .  . 

308 


1860]  EVE    OF    THE    CIVIL   WAR 

I  regard  [your  lecture]  as  a  treasure,  and  have  read  it  again 
and  again.  I  like  every  part  of  it,  and  differ  from  you  in  no  par 
ticular  where  its  functions  are  of  a  general  nature,  or  even  where 
they  are  special  or  limited,  and  I  am  able  to  apply  them  to  the  facts. 
How  exactly  do  I  adopt  your  appreciation  of  the  boy-nature, — which 
we  do  not  understand  I  think  as  well  as  we  ought, — and  your  account 
of  Arnold,  so  perfectly  corresponding  with  what  I  had  inferred  from 
his  letters  and  life,  and  your  dissent  from  the  attempt  to  mix  pro 
fessional  training  in  schools  and  colleges  with  the  proper  business 
of  education.  The  great  basis  of  liberal  education  can  be  no  other 
than  the  Greek  and  Roman  classics,  if  we  mean  to  educate  men.  There 
never  has  been  any  other  basis  since  the  revival  of  letters.  It  has 
made  great  men  in  every  department,  and  will  make  them  again.  The 
objection  to  it  has  come  from  men  who  were  merely  professional  men, 
and  not  educated  at  all.  I  know  a  number  of  only  half -educated  men 
who  nevertheless  have  been  benefited  enough  by  it  to  be  at  an  infinite 
distance  from  any  such  objection.  I  hope  your  lecture  will  do  good. 
My  great  comfort  in  our  comparatively  crude  state  is  the  thought 
and  hope  that  the  men  of  England  will  hold  up  their  old  standard 
openly  before  the  world,  and  that  we  may  be  encouraged  and  in 
structed  by  it  to  follow  in  that  path. 

You  will  have  learned  before  this  that  Lincoln  is  chosen  by  the 
people;  that  is  to  say,  the  people  have  chosen  electors  who  in  the 
next  month  will  give  him  a  considerable  majority  of  the  electoral 
votes.  The  details  would  not  interest  you ;  but  the  people  of  Penn 
sylvania  have  given  a  larger  vote  for  him  than  they  have  ever  given 
for  any  President  since  Washington.  It  is  much  the  same  in  New 
York  and  Ohio  (the  three  great  States  of  the  centre,  with  from  eight 
to  ten  million  of  freemen).  South  Carolina,  upon  this  intelligence, 
has  declared,  so  far  as  her  Legislature  can  declare  it,  that  she  will 
secede  from  the  Union,  and  has  called  a  convention  of  her  people  to 
resolve  upon  it.  Other  Southern  States  are  doing  or  have  done  the 
same.  Secession  by  one  or  more  of  the  States  is  an  absurdity.  The 
whole  people  (not  the  States)  made  the  Constitution  and  Union,  and 
no  part  or  subdivision  of  the  people  can  go  off,  any  more  than  a 

309 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  80 

county  or  shire  can  go  off  from  a  State.  It  is  revolution,  and  that 
only,  or  at  least  an  attempt  to  make  one. 

If  the  purpose  is  to  make  a  Southern  union  as  a  separate  union, 
the  universal  opinion  here  is  that  such  a  nation  could  not  subsist,  for 
want  of  the  necessary  elements,  and  that  the  United  States,  from 
the  geographical  structure  of  their  territory,  cannot  permit  it  to 
subsist.  If  Europe  will  let  us  alone,  the  whole,  it  is  thought,  will  be 
an  abortion.  If  any  great  State  interferes  for  the  South,  it  may  be 
an  awful  and  desolating  convulsion. 

I  can  suggest  no  probable  cause  for  this,  but  the  conviction 
among  Southern  politicians  that  a  union  with  the  Democracy  of  the 
West  and  North  to  give  further  extension  to  slavery  is  from  hence 
forth  hopeless,  and  that  the  subordination  of  the  South  to  the  general 
policy  of  the  North  and  West  must,  from  the  increase  of  the  West, 
be  soon  definitely  established.  This,  I  admit,  is  probable,  and  very 
unpalatable  to  the  ambitious  men  of  the  South;  but  the  consequence 
of  its  being  established  would  be  that  the  South  would  be  more  secure 
in  the  slaves  they  possess,  tho'  they  would  be  disarmed  of  the  power 
to  send  their  slaves  into  the  free  territories,  and  would  certainly  be 
disappointed  in  the  renewal  of  the  slave  trade.  This  last  is  with 
many  the  principal  desideratum.  We  shall  know  what  President 
Buchanan  thinks  about  the  matter  in  a  fortnight. 

I  have,  however,  detained  you  too  long.  What  I  meant  by 
genius,  in  referring  to  the  countenance  of  your  friend  Patteson,4  was 
the  very  thing  you  describe, — quickness  and  soundness.  It  is  the 
genius  of  the  bench,  and,  indeed,  of  the  lawyer  generally.  The  two 
are  not  often  nor  generally  allied.  The  countenance,  or,  more  accu 
rately,  the  head  and  the  eye,  give  the  indications  of  it,  and  these  were 
all  I  judged  by.  Upon  the  whole,  I  did  not  miss  as  much  as  I  might. 

Pray  give  my  thanks  and  regards  to  your  son.  When  he  shall 
become  Chancellor  or  judge  of  the  Queen's  Bench  I  am  happy  to 
believe  that  England  will  have  a  second  judge  of  the  same  line,  who 


*This  refers  to  Mr.  Binney's  account  (supra)  of  his  visit  to  the  King's 
Bench  in  April,  1837.  He  had  sent  Sir  John  a  copy  of  what  he  had  written  at  the 
time  in  regard  to  the  appearance  of  the  judges. 

310 


1860]  EVE    OF    THE    CIVIL   WAR 

will  have  no  fear  of  shewing  that  he  is  ex  corde  a  Christian.  What 
he  has  written  at  the  close  of  his  review  in  regard  to  some  judicial 
appointments  grieves  me. 

Lincoln's  election  was  soon  followed  by  the  secession  of 
South  Carolina,  and  for  the  next  five  months  the  political  sky 
became  more  and  more  overcast,  until  the  storm  burst  with 
the  attack  on  Fort  Sumter.  To  Mr.  Binney  it  was  a  period 
of  patient  waiting,  the  hope  of  a  peaceful  preservation  of 
the  Union  growing  every  day  more  faint;  but  the  instant 
that  certainty  was  reached,  though  it  was  the  certainty  of  a 
bloody  war,  his  spirits  rose  with  the  thought  that  "  all  are 
now  for  the  United  States,  here  and  everywhere  northward 
and  westward."  5 

(To  Dr.  Lieber.} 

PHILADA.,  13  Dec.,  1860. 

.  .  .  We  are  left  in  a  bad  condition  by  the  course  of  the 
President.  Better  not  to  have  said  a  word,  than  to  have  said  what 
he  did.  Complicated  as  the  South  Carolina  movement  has  been  with 
bank  suspension  here,  and  generally  through  the  South  and  West,  it 
has  produced  an  apprehension  and  agitation  that  neither  cause  would 
have  produced  by  itself.  My  prescription  is  calmness,  firmness,  almost 
silence  and  self -concentration,  that  we  may  get  the  souls  of  the  people 
who  think  into  the  proper  frame.  I  am  averse  to  these  meetings,  here, 
there,  and  everywhere.  Inactivity  was  never  of  more  value;  and  as 
the  difficulty  cannot  or  will  not  be  soon  settled,  there  is  the  more  time 
before  us.  If  there  is  any  vis  medicatrix  in  a  free  government,  it 
should  be  allowed  a  reasonable  time  to  operate.  No  violent  remedies 
can  do  good.  I  would  tell  the  people,  as  I  would  tell  an  excited  sea 
man  in  a  storm,  "  Hold  on  to  the  sheet  and  mind  orders."  Hold  on 
to  the  Union,  and  the  ship  may  come  down  again  on  to  an  even  keel 
without  your  doing  anything.  You  cannot  tell  what  will  be  the  effect 
you  will  produce  by  almost  anything  you  may  do  now.  If  the  disease 


6  Letter  to  Dr.  Lieber,  April  18,  1861. 
311 


HORACE    BINNEY  [.Ex.  80-81 

proves  incurable,  you  lose  nothing  by  such  advice,  and  you  will  be 
better  able  to  provide  for  what  may  turn  up. 

South  Carolina  has  discredited  herself  before  the  whole  world, 
whatever  may  have  been  her  troubles  in  the  Union.  Every  State 
owes  a  debt  to  all  other  States,  to  act  with  dignity,  and  to  make  known 
the  causes  of  discontent  with  her  present  condition.  She  must  do 
this  in  no  long  time,  or  she  will  sink  to  the  depth  of  Algerine  or 
Tunisian  degradation  in  old  times.  In  the  mean  time  I  would  leave 
her  to  herself,  holding  on  to  the  Union,  and  working  it  with  the  means 
we  have.  A  short  time  seems  very  long  to  the  impatient  and  excited. 
A  long  time  is  short  to  look  back  upon  if  we  have  done  nothing  in  the 
interval  that  we  must  lose  both  time  and  character  in  undoing. 

The  danger  of  the  country  in  the  emergency  is  the  general 
mediocrity  you  advert  to.  But  do  such  troubles  occur  except  when 
there  is  no  man  who  rises  so  much  above  the  common  level  as  to  be 
generally  seen?  One  man  having  general  confidence  throughout  the 
country,  and  raised  above  the  rest  by  qualities  fitted  for  the  time, 
though  perhaps  not  the  best,  would  settle  it  in  a  day.  Such  a  man 
would  have  prevented  it.  We  have  none  such  now,  it  would  seem; 
but  we  must  not  abandon  the  hope  of  having  him.  In  the  mean  time 
let  us  hold  to  the  Union  and  wait  for  orders. 

(To  J.  C.  Hamilton,  Esq.) 

PHILADA.,  29  Dec.,  1860. 

...  I  am  quite  convinced  that  the  President  is  and  has  been, 
from  the  election  of  Lincoln,  false  to  the  Union.  Keith  said  at  Colum 
bia  that  Buchanan  was  pledged  to  secession,  and  must  be  held  to  it. 
What  this  means  in  full  I  cannot  tell;  but  from  the  evidence  thus 
far  I  regard  it  as  meaning  at  least  this, — that  the  condition  of  the 
forts  should  remain  as  they  were,  that  is  to  say,  perfectly  inefficient 
for  repression,  or  even  for  self-defence ;  and  it  is  this  pledge  or  policy 
that  Major  Anderson  has  so  nobly  disappointed.  But  what  is  to  be 
done  for  this  gallant  man?  Is  he  to  be  ordered  back?  Is  he  to  be 
left  without  supplies  where  he  is  ?  Are  we  going  to  let  this  false  chief 
leave  Anderson  to  be  starved  out  of  Fort  Sumter?  Is  not  even  a 

312 


1860-61]      EVE    OF    THE    CIVIL    WAR 

revenue  cutter  to  be  put  at  his  service,  for  communication  as  well  as 
support?  I  am  told  General  Scott  justifies  him,  as  I  can  well  believe. 
Cannot  you  give  me  some  little  private  comfort  on  this  and  other 
heads?  We  seem  to  be  getting  into  revolution  by  our  very  love  of 
order.  This  has  been  my  recommendation,  you  observe,  to  be  calm, 
to  keep  things  as  they  are,  as  much  as  possible,  until  a  leader  shall 
come  from  those  who  are  entitled  to  lead.  But  if  Major  Anderson, 
with  his  men,  is  ordered  back  to  Fort  Moultrie,  or  he  is  arrested  or 
ordered  elsewhere,  what  then?  Whatever  may  occur,  I  hope  all 
schemes  for  calling  the  central  States  into  conference,  in  exclusion 
of  New  York  and  the  North,  will  be  discountenanced  and  defeated. 
We  must  hold,  I  think,  to  the  whole  of  the  Union,  in  exclusion  only 
of  such  slave  States,  whether  cotton  or  boarder,  as  chuse  to  go  off. 
Keep  up  the  name,  the  prestige,  and  the  old  Union  and  Constitution, 
whatever  happens.  That  is  my  faith,  and  I  guess  it  is  yours. 

Happy,  very  happy,  New  Year  to  Mrs.  Hamilton  and  all  of  you. 

(To  Dr.  Lieber.) 

PHILADA.,  5  Jany.,  1861. 

...  I  was  very  much  struck  by  the  contraction  which  Mr. 
Calhoun's  social  theory  had  incurred  through  the  influence  of  slavery, 
perhaps  through  his  peculiar  political  position  in  regard  to  it.  He 
walked  with  me  one  morning,  in  the  year  1834,  for  nearly  two  hours 
on  the  esplanade  of  the  Capitol ;  and  gave  his  views  to  me,  I  suppose 
fully,  as  he  had  a  full  opportunity.  I  was  a  listener  for  the  most 
part,  and  only  interjected  now  and  then  a  doubt  or  quaere,  or  sugges 
tion,  to  keep  him  to  the  line  he  first  traced,  or  rather  to  show  that  he 
had  my  attention.  He  obviously  considered  society  as  consisting 
only  of  two  classes,  the  poor  who  were  uneducated,  and  doomed  to 
serve,  and  the  men  of  property  and  education,  to  whom  the  service 
was  to  be  rendered.  Regarding  these  two  classes  as  discriminating 
the  people  of  Pennsylvania  as  much  as  South  Carolina,  he  said,  em 
phatically,  "  [The  poor  and  uneducated]  are  increasing;  there  is  no 
power  in  a  republican  government  to  repress  them;  their  number 
and  disorderly  tempers  will  make  them  in  the  end  efficient  enemies 

313 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  81 

of  the  men  of  property.  They  have  the  right  to  vote,  they  will  finally 
control  your  elections,  and  by  bad  laws  or  by  violence  they  will  invade 
your  houses  and  turn  you  out.  Education  will  do  nothing  for  them ; 
they  will  not  give  it  to  their  children ;  it  will  do  them  no  good  if  they 
do.  They  are  hopelessly  doomed  as  a  mass  to  poverty,  from  genera 
tion  to  generation;  and  from  the  political  franchise,  they  will  in 
crease  in  influence  and  desperation  until  they  overturn  you.  The 
institution  of  slavery  cuts  off  this  evil  by  the  root.  The  whole  body 
of  our  servants,  whether  in  the  family  or  in  the  field,  are  removed 
from  all  influence  upon  the  white  class  by  the  denial  of  all  political 
rights.  They  have  no  more  tendency  to  disturb  the  order  of  society 
than  an  overstock  of  horses  or  oxen.  They  have  neither  power  nor 
ambition  to  disturb  it.  They  can  be  kept  in  order  by  methods  which 
a  republican  government,  as  well  as  a  monarchical  or  a  military  one, 
can  apply.  They  have  no  jealousy  of  the  other  class,  nor  the  other 
of  them.  They  never  stand  on  the  same  platform  with  the  white 
class.  They  only  require  supervision  and  domestic  discipline  to  keep 
them  in  good  order;  and  such  means  are  easily  applied  and  become 
normal  in  the  State.  The  white  class  is  therefore  left  to  pursue  with 
out  apprehension  the  means  they  think  best  to  elevate  their  own  condi 
tion.  Slavery  is  indispensable  to  a  republican  government.  There 
cannot  be  a  durable  republican  government  without  slavery." 

This  was  the  strain;  and  throughout  the  two  hours  he  spoke 
of  slavery  as  a  beatitude  of  the  governing  party  and  the  best  also 
for  the  slaves.  Not  a  single  remark  was  made  by  him  upon  the  in 
fluence  of  slavery  on  the  condition  of  the  poor  and  uneducated  of  the 
white  class,  nor  upon  white  mechanics  in  the  inferior  class,  nor  upon 
education  in  regard  to  the  slaves  themselves,  nor  upon  the  diversified 
interests  which  constitute  a  civilized  and  enlightened  community.  The 
pillars  of  a  republican  State — and  he  only  appeared  to  contemplate 
two — were  a  slave  class  and  a  property  class,  such  white  persons  as 
were  not  within  the  property  class  being  wholly  ignored.  They  came 
into  his  consideration  only  as  they  acquired  property  enough  to  belong 
to  the  governing  class,  and  then  they  got  into  the  same  category. 

I  doubt  if  Mr.  Calhoun's  views  of  society,  republican  society, 

314 


1861]  CALHOUN    ON    SLAVERY 

were  not  derived  from  this  programme ;  and  if  his  logic  was  always 
hard  in  defending  such  a  theory  of  republican  government  and  life, 
it  is  not  clear  that  his  heart  was  less  hard.  A  man  who  makes  slavery 
an  essential  element  in  his  Utopia  must  be  employed  in  narrowing 
the  scope  and  influence  of  our  noblest  emotions,  and  in  concentrating 
the  powers  of  his  mind  upon  a  hard  unsocial  strategy,  to  defeat  the 
insurrection  of  all  liberal  natures  in  the  same  community  against  so 
artificial  a  system.  Such  a  heart  must  be  hard. 

In  these  sentiments  of  Mr.  Calhoun  I  think  I  can  read  his 
entire  political  life ;  and  is  it  not  apparent  that  the  present  revolution 
in  South  Carolina  is  the  fruit  of  such  principles,  and  of  none  other? 
It  seems  to  manifest  an  intense  hatred  of  all  other  political  institu 
tions  than  just  such  as  Mr.  Calhoun  exhibited  to  me  as  its  elements, 
a  wish  to  involve  all  others  in  anarchy,  a  doubtful  sympathy  with 
even  slavery,  except  in  the  dual  distribution  of  classes  he  postulated, 
and  as  uncompromising  an  hostility  to  slavery  under  any  modifications 
that  may  tend  to  its  emancipation  or  melioration  as  it  does  to  abso 
lutely  free  institutions.  The  French  Revolution  itself  seems  to  have 
been  more  kindly,  more  tempered  with  a  love  for  what  was  liberal, 
social,  and  exalting,  at  its  commencement  than  this,  where  all  that 
we  hear  or  see  is  selfish,  misanthropical,  and  hard,  aspiring  to  exclude 
the  whole  American  world  from  its  communion,  and  to  raise  its  empire 
upon  negro  slavery  and  nothing  else.  What  a  system  of  public  moral 
ity  is  shown  in  the  instant  repudiation  of  public  trusts, — the  judge 
of  his  court  and  functions,  the  marshal  of  his  official  warrants  and 
writs,  the  collector  of  his  duties,  transferring  the  property  of  the 
United  States  to  enemies,  the  captain  of  a  revenue  cutter  discharging 
his  men  and  re-enlisting  them  in  alien  or  enemy  service,  every  one 
of  these  persons  being  sworn  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States;  the  State  itself  profanely  absolving  men  from  their  duties 
and  trusts,  and  substituting  in  the  very  post-offices  and  officers  op 
posing  duties  for  the  momentary  profit  and  convenience  of  the  in 
surgent  government.  All  this  strikes  me  as  horrible,  blasting  the 
character  of  the  State  and  preparing  an  awfully  black  page  for 
history,  whether  the  insurrection  succeed  or  not.  Of  the  same  nature 

315 


HORACE    BINNEY  \_Mi.  81 

is  the  tampering  with  the  Cabinet  officers  and  by  them,  possibly  to 
the  blinding  of  the  President,  certainly  to  his  infatuation,  every  step 
being  as  infamous  a  breach  of  trust  as  the  robbery  of  the  trust  bonds 
from  the  strong  box  of  the  War  Office.  If  the  men  are  insane,  there 
is  an  excuse  for  them ;  but  otherwise  there  would  seem  to  be  a  scorn  of 
morality,  or  honour,  even  of  decency,  in  the  whole  outbreak.  Depend 
upon  it,  my  dear  sir,  the  apparent  unanimity  is  deceptive,  or  slavery 
as  Mr.  Calhoun  taught  it  has  eaten  up  the  heart  of  public  or  national 
honour  from  the  people.  I  am  prepared,  on  the  contrary,  to  learn  that 
terror  does  a  great  part,  and  either  way  what  a  result  should  it  pre 
pare  us  for? 

(To  the  Hon.  D.  A.  White.) 

PHILADA.,  Mar.  1,  1861. 

Your  letter  of  the  26th  Feb.,  which  I  received  yesterday,  gave 
me,  as  all  your  letters  do,  great  satisfaction,  mixed  with  some  regret 
that  your  state  of  health  did  not  permit  you  to  write  the  whole  of  it 
yourself,  and  bringing  a  little  reproach  to  me  from  my  own  heart  that 
I,  with  better  health,  had  not  anticipated  you  by  a  letter  of  my  own. 
I  lose  no  time,  however,  in  telling  you  how  much  I  sympathize  with 
you  in  the  confinement  your  health  makes  necessary,  and  how  thor 
oughly  I  concur  with  you  in  all  you  have  said  about  secession  and 
the  remedies  for  it.  The  word  is  simply  a  political  invention  to  drug 
the  consciences  of  ignorant  men,  who  have  no  love  for  treason.  I  do 
not  believe  that  one  single  man  of  sound  mind  in  the  country,  having 
the  least  tincture  of  jurisprudence,  entertains  a  different  opinion. 
The  history  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  nature,  end,  and  language 
of  the  agreement  for  Union,  make  such  a  right  in  one  of  the  parties 
an  absurdity,  and  the  assertion  of  it,  after  seventy  years  administra 
tion,  a  gross  fraud.  A  proof  that  there  is  a  consciousness  of  this, 
even  in  those  who  assert  the  right,  is  in  the  immorality  and  dishonour 
of  both  the  public  and  the  personal  acts  which  have  been  the  conse 
quence  of  the  assertion  in  many  flagrant  instances.  The  code  of 
public  morality  in  the  South  has  been  turned  topsy-turvy  by  it,  and 
it  is  not  wonderful  that  the  poison  has  passed  from  public  bodies  to 
individuals,  until  we  must  blush  at  the  baseness  of  men  in  every  grade 

316 


1861]  EVE    OF    THE    CIVIL   WAR 

of  official  station.  It  seems  to  be  thought  necessary  only  to  have  an 
official  character  of  some  kind  under  the  United  States  to  make  it  the 
cloak  of  rascality,  such  as  men  in  decent  society  are  pilloried  for,  or 
whipt  at  the  post,  or  hanged,  or  shot.  No  truthful  doctrine  ever  pro 
duced  such  fruits.  I  expect  a  universal  demoralization,  such  as  we  wit 
nessed  in  the  French  Revolution,  if  the  stream  runs  its  natural  course. 

All  that  is  left  to  the  government  is,  no  doubt,  firmly  and 
calmly  to  deny  and  to  resist  it ;  to  assert  the  obligation  of  the  supreme 
law,  and  to  enforce  it,  by  every  means  at  command  which  can  reason 
ably  promise  success;  and  if  the  present  means  are  so  reduced  by 
treason  and  fraud  that  present  action  can  only  be  of  minimum 
amount,  then  the  duty  is  to  apply  the  minimum  power,  and  to  collect 
the  better  means.  Those  who  are  opposed  to  this  seek  protection  for 
their  own  wrong,  or  are  indifferent  to  the  overthrow  of  the  govern 
ment.  If  we  mean  to  preserve  the  Constitution  for  any  of  the  States, 
it  must  be  shown  that  there  is  some  virtue  in  it;  and  it  will  be  seen 
to  have  none  if,  when  violence  is  used  against  the  law,  we  attempt 
to  allay  it  by  words,  by  flowers  of  rhetoric.  The  namby-pamby  talk 
about  civil  war  and  bloodshed  is  the  language  of  treason,  open  or 
covert.  I  want  no  more  force  than  will  maintain  the  law  against  the 
force  that  prostrates  it ;  and  thus  I  would  let  the  law-breaker  fix  the 
quantum  which  the  government  should  use.  A  Spanish  story  is  not  a 
bad  one.  A  soldier  in  Madrid,  being  assailed  by  a  furious  dog,  ran 
him  through  with  the  spear  at  the  fighting  end  of  his  halberd.  "  But 
why,"  said  the  owner,  "  didn't  you  beat  him  off  with  the  wooden  end?" 
"  I  would,"  said  the  soldier,  "  if  he  had  come  at  me  tail  foremost."  I 
am  for  the  wooden  end,  if  it  will  answer.  As  to  invasion,  conquest, 
and  all  that,  that  is  stark  nonsense.  What  is  wanted  is  to  assist  the 
Union  men  in  the  South  to  maintain  their  rights  as  citizens  of  the 
United  States,  in  spite  of  the  usurped  power  and  terrorism. 

But  how  has  it  happened  that  the  loyalty  of  the  people  in  the 
Middle  and  Northern  States  to  the  Union  is  so  feeble?  I  wiU  tell  you, 
though  you  know  it  already. 

The  conflict  which  the  Constitution  was  to  undergo  with  the 
States  was  anticipated  by  Washington  and  Hamilton;  and  an  im- 

317 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  81 

portant  part  of  the  Federal  policy  was  to  bring  the  government  of  the 
United  States  as  much  before  the  people,  as  an  instrument  of  good 
to  them,  as  possible.  Upon  this  the  Democratic  party,  led  by  Jeffer 
son,  fastened,  as  proof  of  a  design  to  bring  in  monarchy,  and  so 
perverted  the  body  of  the  country  as  to  supplant  Federalism  and  to 
destroy  its  general  influence.  Since  that  time  the  States  have  been 
the  important  power,  and  the  United  States  subordinate,  for  all  pur 
poses  of  internal  influence  and  welfare.  Add  to  this  our  innumerable 
institutions  of  local  authority,  by  which  we  govern  ourselves  in  cities, 
counties,  and  districts,  with  hardly  a  reference  to  any  superior  power 
at  all,  and  to  none  whatever  beyond  the  State.  Hence  it  is  that  we 
are  Virginians,  Pennsylvanians,  New  Yorkers,  etc.,  and  that,  except 
when  we  find  ourselves  in  foreign  countries,  we  have  no  country  of  our 
own.  Universally  we  assert  that  we  owe  allegiance,  in  the  jural  sense, 
to  our  respective  States,  instead  of  fidelity  or  fealty.  In  the  South, 
where  the  heresy  began,  this  allegiance  to  the  State  has  been  avowed 
as  primary;  and  the  only  true  allegiance  we  owe,  that  which  is  due 
to  tne  United  States,  in  return  for  all  the  protection  we  have  against 
foreign  states,  against  all  other  States  of  the  Union  except  our  own, 
and  against  our  own  when  she  exceeds  the  limits  which  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States  imposes, — this  only  true  allegiance  is  placed 
next  after  that  which  they  claim  for  their  own  State.  A  nation  of 
more  than  thirty  States,  owing,  the  people  of  each  State,  allegiance 
to  thirty  different  governments !  And  you  see  what  it  has  made  us. 
We  are  a  people,  for  the  most  part,  who  have  within  their  own  terri 
tory  no  country.  We  have  not  among  us  the  bond  of  loyalty  to  the 
Union.  Even  in  the  army  and  navy  the  separating  State  feeling 
exists  to  some  extent,  has  already  done  shameful  things,  and  no  one 
can  tell  how  far  it  will  go. 

In  fine,  my  dear  old  friend,  I  fear  the  whole  piece  is  nearly 
acted  out.  We  may  possibly,  through  the  influence  of  private  inter 
ests,  patch  up  the  Union  again  for  a  short  time,  though  even  this 
hangs  in  doubt;  but  a  durable,  homogeneous  nation  we  cannot  have, 
nor,  whatever  may  be  our  other  blessings,  shall  we  or  our  children  be 
part  of  a  people  who  will  partake  of  that  blessing  which  the  people 

318 


1861]          DEATH    OF   JUDGE    WHITE 

of  England,  France,  and  Germany  enjoy,  and  which  the  people  of 
Italy  are  striving  to  attain, — of  having  one  fatherland.  We  often 
boast  of  speaking  one  tongue  in  better  accents  than  the  same  amount 
of  population  in  any  other  part  of  the  globe.  I  devoutly  wish  that 
we  could  also  boast  of  speaking  with  one  heart,  even  if  it  were  only 
of  one  thing, — our  common  country.  I  have  some  doubts  whether  na 
tional  or  public  virtue  can  be  grafted  upon  any  other  stock.  How  is  it 
to  exist  where  one  part  of  our  people  graft  into  an  olive,  another  into 
a  crab,  another  into  an  alligator-pear?  For  I  believe  they  raise  that 
in  some  parts  of  the  South.  They  certainly  graft  into  as  bad  things. 
But  you  and  I,  my  dear  old  friend,  though  we  may  write  and 
think  about  such  things,  have  little  more  to  do  with  them ;  thankful, 
no  doubt,  on  both  sides,  that  though  we  have  not  lived  to  see  the  hopes 
of  our  noble  Federalists  in  the  morning  of  our  day  realized,  but  their 
fears  rather,  we  have  nevertheless  been  permitted  to  partake  of  innu 
merable  comforts  together  with  our  length  of  days,  and  to  be  un- 
f eignedly  thankful  to  Heaven  for  them  all.  .  .  . 

The  above  letter  ends  the  correspondence,  as  Judge 
White  died  on  March  30th.  Hearing  of  his  death,  Mr. 
Binney  wrote: 

I  have  now  lost  my  warm-hearted  and  affectionate  correspond 
ent,  whose  purity  and  intelligence  were  a  constant  refreshment  to 
think  of,  and  whose  tastes  and  opinions  were  more  in  sympathy  with 
my  own  than  those  of  any  other  man  of  my  time.  In  many  respects 
I  have  seen  no  person  like  him,  no  person  so  unvarying  for  so  long  a 
life,  the  delicacy  and  susceptibility  of  his  affections  continuing  the 
same  from  my  first  acquaintance  with  him.  The  remembrance  of  him 
must  be  a  store  of  sacred  thoughts,  as  well  as  of  honourable  and  wise 
principles  to  his  descendants.  ...  It  will  be  to  me  while  I  live.  Let 
those  who  were  nearest  to  him  know  how  deeply  I  respected  and  loved 
him,  and  how  truly,  through  our  long  lives,  the  intercourse  between  us, 
which  began  in  these  sentiments,  was  without  jar  or  shadow  to  the  end.6 


'Letter  to  Rev.  W.  O.  White,  April,  1861. 
319 


HORACE    BINNEY  [MT.  81 

(To  Sir  J.  T.  Coleridge.) 

PHILADELPHIA,  5  Mar.,  1861. 

It  would  have  corresponded  better  with  my  sense  of  your  kind 
ness  if  I  had  replied  immediately  to  your  letter  of  the  23  January; 
but,  hoping  that  you  would  not  misapprehend  my  delay,  I  postponed 
my  acknowledgments,  partly  from  the  expectation  of  being  able  to 
say  something  more  definite  and  encouraging  on  the  subject  of  our 
public  affairs,  and  recently,  I  grieve  to  say,  from  the  severe  illness 
of  my  son  Horace,  which  has  left  me  little  else  to  think  of.  ... 

The  condition  of  this  country  you  appear  to  know  in  a  general 
way;  and  I  can  hardly  express  my  sense  of  the  sympathy  on  this 
head  which  your  letter  expressed  to  me.  Though  the  difficulties  of 
our  position  have  not  diminished,  and  have  in  some  respects  been 
enlarged,  we  are  at  length  in  a  condition  to  meet  them  with  more 
regularity,  and  probably  with  more  effect,  by  the  peaceable  inaugura 
tion  of  Mr.  Lincoln  as  President,  which  took  place  at  Washington 
yesterday.  I  send  you  a  newspaper  containing  a  copy  of  his  address 
before  taking  the  oath  of  office ;  .  .  .  and  I  hope  you  will  agree  with 
me  that  it  is  a  plain,  sensible  paper,  expressing  right  doctrines  as  to  the 
perpetuity  of  the  Constitution,  the  unlawfulness  of  secession,  and  the 
duty  of  enforcing  the  laws ;  and  in  a  kind  temper,  tho'  with  all  requi 
site  firmness,  declaring  his  purpose  to  administer  his  office  with  fidelity, 
and  with  effect  as  far  as  the  country  shall  supply  the  means.  I  should 
think,  and  this  is  the  common  opinion,  that  the  paper  has  been  written 
by  himself ;  and  that  it  is  a  proof  of  a  plain,  sound  mind,  free  from 
any  disposition  to  press  what  he  thinks  right  with  much  rigour,  or 
what  he  thinks  wrong  or  plainly  inexpedient,  from  mere  fidelity  to 
party;  the  best  temper,  perhaps,  for  our  country.  His  reasoning 
upon  disputed  points,  where  I  have  examined  it  with  attention,  ap 
pears  to  be  accurate,  and  his  heart  kind.  He  is  generally  regarded  as 
a  cordial  man,  not  highly  educated,  but  of  good  reasoning  powers, 
and  both  calm  and  brave.  On  the  whole,  I  like  his  debut.  The 
people  will  understand  him ;  and  that  is  a  great  point  with  us. 

The  history  of  this  flagitious  outbreak,  for  so  I  regard  it,  is 

320 


1861]  EVE    OF    THE    CIVIL    WAR 

just  beginning  to  be  known.     It  is  now  pretty  generally  agreed  that 
South  Carolina  has  been  preparing  it  for  a  considerable  time  past, 
and  that  it  is  the  result  of  Mr.  Calhoun's  teachings  upon  the  subject 
of  slavery,  assisted  by  the  arts  of  ambitious  men,  of  less  ability  than 
himself,  who  have  filled  the  public  mind  of  the  South  with  appre 
hensions  for  their  domestic  safety,  on  account  of  the  growth  and 
temper  of  the   free   States,   who   are  unfriendly  to  slavery.      The 
grounds  of  alarm  on  this  score  have  been  grossly  exaggerated  by 
these  ambitious  teachers,  to  the  intent  of  obtaining  a  general  consent 
to  disruption  at  the  first  favourable  opportunity ;    and  Mr.  Lincoln's 
election  has  been  the  signal.     Yet  all  this,  as  some  of  the  leaders  now 
acknowledge,  was  as  to  them  a  pretence.     They  assert  that  the  per 
sonal  liberty  bills  were  of  no  concern  to  them;   that  the  difficulty  in 
fugitive  slave  cases  did  not  touch  them.     They  demand  the  separa 
tion  because  they  regain  free  trade, — free  importation  of  slaves, — a 
people  of  two  classes,  masters  and  slaves;    and  they  proclaim  that 
slavery  with  cotton  will  command  the  highest  position  for  them  among 
nations.     I  regard  the  personal  ambition  of  a  few,  the  prejudices  of 
the  mass,  who  have  been  practised  upon  by  their  own  politicians,  a 
vain  and  blind  confidence  in  their  own  staple  product,  and  an  impa 
tience  of  any  government  in  which  they  cannot  lead,  the  natural  pro 
duct  of  their  state  of  society  divided  between  masters  and  slaves,  as 
the  causes  of  the  result.    As  to  maladministration  of  the  government, 
oppressive  laws  heretofore,  or  dangerous  interpretations  of  the  Con 
stitution, — they  do  not  and  cannot  pretend  to  it;    for  hitherto  for 
half  a  century  the   Southern   States,  pretending  Democracy, — and 
uniting  with  it  in  the  North,  though  they  now  revile  it  with  scorn, — 
have  had  everything  their  own  way.      They  annexed  Texas,  they 
made  the  war  with  Mexico,  they  broke  and  repealed  the  slavery  com 
promise  of  1820,  they  kept  a  majority  of  judges  from  slave  States 
upon  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court,  they  promoted  that  change 
of  opinion  in  regard  to  the  power  of  Congress  over  the  Territories 
which  had  been  acquiesced  in  for  more  than  sixty  years,  and  has  been 
discarded  by  the  Dred  Scott  case,  which  sanctions  their  right  to  carry 
slaves  into  all  the  Territories.     They  have  hitherto  ruled,  and  their 
21  321 


HORACE    BINNEY  [Mi.  81 

rule  has  come  to  an  end  by  the  growth  of  the  Western  States,  and  by 
the  revolt  of  Democracy  itself  from  their  bidding.  This  I  believe 
is  the  whole  story.  The  mass  of  Republicanism  in  the  Western  States 
is  made  of  what  was  Democracy,  rising  up  to  assist  the  superiority 
of  free  labour  over  slave.  I  am  not  sorry  that  Democracy  has  done 
one  good  turn  in  my  long  life,  the  only  one  I  can  recollect. 

But  the  future  of  our  country  who  can  penetrate?  I  lean 
upon  God,  as  you  suppose,  and  there  is  no  one  else.  We  are  divided 
here  at  the  North,  uncomfortably  divided;  for  many  of  those  I 
respect  lean  strongly  to  the  South  in  all  things,  justify  the  secession, 
argue  for  its  legality,  deny  that  it  is  treason,  justify  the  taking  of 
our  undefended  ports,  the  robbery  of  the  New  Orleans  Mint  by  the 
State,  the  surrender  of  revenue  cutters  by  their  officers,  the  surrender 
of  military  chest,  stores,  and  arms  by  the  commanding  officer  in  Texas, 
the  gross  infidelity  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior, — treachery  to  make  us 
hang  down  our  heads  in  very  shame.  Such  is  the  power  of  party ! 

I  will  not  go  on,  my  dear  sir.  You  may  not  have  the  facts, 
and  I  do  but  hint  at  them,  and  I  may  be  thought  to  be  writing  a  libel 
upon  many  of  my  countrymen.  But  I  send  you  a  very  instructive 
paper,  copied  into  the  National  Intelligencer  from  the  Charleston 
Mercury,  the  great  and  rather  able  organ  of  the  conspiracy  in  that 
State,  in  the  name  of  one  of  its  principal  editors, — a  protest  against 
the  prohibition  of  the  slave  trade  by  the  new  Confederation.  You 
will  probably  regard  it  as  a  phenomenon  in  the  history  of  hallucina 
tions,  but  I  send  it  mainly  to  verify  some  of  my  brief  statements  in 
regard  to  the  causes  of  the  outbreak.  South  Carolina  has  led  in  this 
matter.  It  seems  to  be  doubtful  whether  she  will  follow  the  Confed 
eration  unless  she  leads ;  and  there  may  be  some  good  come  out  of  this. 

When  I  get  a  clue  to  the  measures  of  Mr.  Lincoln  in  applica 
tion  of  his  principles,  I  may  be  better  able  to  foresee  results.  At 
present  it  is  dark  in  many  directions.  It  is,  however,  all  clear  above 
and,  I  thank  God,  within;  and  if  I  fail,  I  trust  you  believe  that  it 
will  be  in  doing  and  in  supporting  what  I  believe  to  be  right  in  His 
sight. 


1861]  EVE    OF    THE    CIVIL   WAR 

Your  letter  refers  to  your  purpose  of  reviewing  and  publishing 
from  your  Journal  some  disquisitions  on  passages  of  the  Testament 
which  from  time  to  time  interested  you,  or  seemed  to  require  explana 
tion.  Pray  do  not  defer  it ;  and  excuse  me  for  adding,  for  my  sake. 
My  time  is  probably  near  at  hand.  Help  me  to  redeem  some  that  I 
have  lost,  not  through  worldliness,  I  hope,  in  its  worst  sense,  but 
through  arduous  labours  in  a  profession  which,  for  several  reasons,  has 
severer  labours  than  with  you,  from  the  condition  of  our  society,  the 
character  of  our  education,  and  the  multiform  calls  upon  a  lawyer  in 
extensive  practice.  An  American  lawyer  has  been,  in  my  time,  doctor, 
surgeon,  and  apothecary  all  in  one.  But  at  no  time  of  my  life,  even 
when  in  fullest  practice,  have  I  failed  to  recur  to  the  blessed  Book,  and 
to  have  a  keen  relish  for  such  disquisitions  and  notes  as  let  me  into  the 
interior  meaning  of  its  passages.  Pray  help  me  to  see  more  and  better, 
in  the  twilight  that  is  coming  upon  me.  I  have  assisted  to  lead  my  sons 
and  daughters  in  the  same  path.  I  too,  while  I  read  the  Bible,  try 
to  study  it,  and  feel  myself,  when  our  Saviour  speaks,  as  if  I  were 
almost  the  central  person  to  whom  he  speaks,  "  His  eye  fixed  upon  me, 
turn  where  I  will."  .  .  . 

Pray  write  again.    Your  letters  are  a  comfort. 

(To  J.  C.  Hamilton,  Esq.) 

PHILADA.,  28  March,  1861. 

...  I  thank  you  for  the  copy  of  Mr.  Randall's  letter.  .  .  . 
The  letter,  if  it  was  sincere,  shows  how  much  the  spirit  of  advocacy 
will  turn  a  man  from  all  direct  and  colourless  views,  both  of  his  sub 
jects  and  of  his  adversaries,  into  the  extreme  of  perversion  and  mis 
representation.  I  think  he  makes  out  Jefferson  to  have  been  a  Chris 
tian  ;  and  if  he  had  represented  your  father  as  a  demon,  I  ought  not 
to  have  been  surprised.  There  are  mean  and  low  girds  at  him  that 
are  worse  than  this,  and  it  was  these  which  the  most  repelled  me.  His 
letter,  however,  shows  that  he  had  no  true  conception  of  your  father's 
character.  In  some  points  he  may  have  resembled  Strafford,  who 
was  a  great  man.  But  your  father  had  not  the  spirit  of  a  tyrant, 
and  a  pretty  bloody  one,  too,  as  Strafford  had ;  and  he  had  one  con- 

323 


HORACE   BINNEY  ^T.  81 


sistent  view  of  his  political  obligations,  which  Strafford  never  had. 
Wentworth's  ambition  was  unlimited,  and  his  principles  sat  likely 
upon  him.  Your  father's  ambition  was  great,  but  it  was  controlled 
and  regulated  by  his  principles,  which  were  the  same,  and  pre 
eminently  true,  from  first  to  last.  I  put  him  far  before  Strafford  in 
good  faith  and  moral  compactness;  but  I  admit,  nevertheless,  that 
StrafFord  was  a  great  man,  and  Mr.  Randall  no  doubt  meant  the 
comparison  for  a  compliment.  I  want  no  compliments,  however,  to 
your  father,  which  rest  on  a  misconception  of  his  character.  I  am  as 
scrupulous  of  it  as  Addison  is  said  to  have  been  of  his  conception  of 
Sir  Roger  de  Coverley,  and  would  quarrel  with  any  one  as  soon  as 
Addison  did  with  Steele,  who  should  attempt  even  to  praise  him  at 
the  expense  of  any  of  his  real  attributes.  Would  to  Heaven  that  we 
had  him  now  as  he  was  at  the  age  of  forty-five!  If  he  were  living, 
we  might  have  two  opinions  of  our  proper  course,  certainly  not  two 
hundred,  as  we  now  have;  and  his  opinion  would  have  rallied  all  the 
men  of  virtue  and  sagacity  in  the  land,  leaving  the  unprincipled  to 
unite,  if  they  could,  under  the  opposite  banner. 

We  must,  however,  do  as  well  as  we  can  without  him.  I  hear 
of  a  voice  from  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  that  "  the  people  of  the 
United  States  seem  to  be  either  traitors  or  imbeciles."  Let  us  be  heed 
ful  on  this  head  of  public  character.  I  would  not  turn  on  my  heel 
for  the  choice  of  a  government,  if  we  lose  that  ;  and  we  are  in  immi 
nent  danger  of  it.  I  look  upon  the  evacuation  of  Fort  Sumter  in  this 
aspect.  If  that  fort  is  given  up  in  the  spirit  of  peace,  as  it  is  called, 
it  will  be  set  down  to  the  want  of  courage  and  purpose;  it  will  pass 
for  simple  yielding,  unless  there  be  something  in  the  manner  that  shall 
proclaim  disdain  for  the  false,  and  wear  even  in  the  evacuation  the 
face  of  defiance.  This  notion  of  letting  them  go  and  carry  off  the 
fruits  of  their  treason,  as  a  brotherly  arrangement,  though  it  may 
leave  one  brother  under  the  brand  of  treason,  will  place  the  other 
for  years  under  the  brand  of  cowardice.  I  tell  you  frankly,  if  I 
were  President,  I  would  bring  them  off  under  fire,  though  I  would 
previously  say,  publicly,  the  fire  shall  be  first  drawn  from  the  other 
forts. 

324 


1861]     THE    PRESIDENT'S    PROCLAMATION 


XIII 

THE    CIVIL   WAR    PERIOD—  HABEAS    CORPUS 
PAMPHLETS 

1861-1865 

ON  April  13  Fort  Sumter  was  fired  on,  and  it  was 
evacuated  two  days  later.    On  the  15th  the  Presi 
dent's  proclamation  was  issued,  calling  for  seventy- 
five  thousand  troops  to  put  down  the  rebellion.    Up  to  this 
time  the  feeling  of  Philadelphia  had  not  been  by  any  means 
unanimously  loyal.    Lincoln's  majority  over  his  three  oppo 
nents  had  been  only  2039,  out  of  a  total  vote  of  76,407,  cast 
as  follows: 


Lincoln  electors 

Breckenridge  electors  ....................  21,619 

Douglas  electors    .......................  8,434 

Bell  electors   ...........................  7,131 

The  influence  of  party  spirit  and  of  commercial  and 
social  relations  with  the  South  was  very  strong.  Meetings 
had  been  held  to  protest  against  any  "  coercion"  of  the  South, 
a  newspaper,  the  Palmetto  Flag,  was  started  to  advocate  the 
Southern  cause,  and  Justice  Woodward,  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  was  not  alone  in  the  sentiment  that  "  If  the  Union 
is  to  be  divided,  I  want  the  line  of  separation  to  run  north 
of  Pennsylvania."  Under  these  circumstances  the  sup 
porters  of  the  Union  felt  that  Philadelphia  must  utter 
some  word  to  show  on  which  side  she  really  stood,  and  to 
serve  as  a  rallying  cry  for  all  loyal  men,  without  distinction 

325 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Ex.  81 

of  party.  Accordingly,  on  the  day  the  President's  procla 
mation  appeared,  the  following  reply  to  it  was  drawn  up 
by  Mr.  Binney,  signed  by  a  large  number  of  influential 
citizens,  and  widely  published: 

The  unparalleled  event  of  the  past  week  has  revealed  to  the 
citizens  of  the  United  States,  beyond  question  or  possibility  of  doubt, 
that  a  peaceful  reconciliation  under  the  form  of  our  Constitution  is 
repelled  and  scorned,  and  that  secession  means,  in  the  hearts  of  its 
supporters,  both  treason  and  war  against  our  country  and  nation. 
We,  therefore,  the  undersigned,  loyal  citizens  of  the  United  States, 
and  inhabitants  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  responding  to  the  proc 
lamation  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  hereby  declare  our 
unalterable  determination  to  sustain  the  government  in  its  efforts  to 
maintain  the  honour,  the  integrity,  and  the  existence  of  our  National 
Union,  and  the  perpetuity  of  the  popular  government,  and  to  redress 
the  wrongs  already  long  enough  endured.  No  differences  of  political 
opinion,  no  name  or  badge  of  diversity  upon  points  of  party  dis 
tinction,  shall  restrain  or  withhold  us  in  the  devotion  of  all  we  have 
or  can  command,  to  the  vindication  of  the  Constitution,  the  main 
tenance  of  the  laws,  and  the  defence  of  the  flag  of  our  country. 

Besides  the  original  signers,  many  thousands  of  citizens 
put  their  names  to  this  declaration  of  loyalty,  and  from  the 
day  that  it  appeared  the  adherence  of  the  great  majority  of 
the  people  of  the  city  to  the  Union  cause  could  not  be  ques 
tioned. 

As  during  the  previous  months  of  uncertainty,  so 
throughout  the  years  when  Mr.  Binney  keenly  watched  the 
varying  fortunes  of  the  Union  armies,  his  letters  gave  ex 
pression  to  the  same  hopes  and  fears  which  thousands  of 
other  men  must  have  felt,  especially  men  like  himself,  too 
old  to  bear  any  part  in  the  great  drama  which  was  being 
enacted  before  the  eyes  of  the  world,  but  not  too  old  to  take 


1861]     THE    PRESIDENT'S    PROCLAMATION 

the  deepest  interest  in  it.  Where,  indeed,  as  happened  more 
than  once,  he  saw  an  opportunity  to  strengthen  the  hands 
of  the  government  by  the  use  of  his  pen,  he  gladly  availed 
himself  of  it ;  but  in  general  he  made  known  his  views  only 
to  the  few  friends  to  whom  he  wrote,  and  always  with  the 
admission  that  he  was  an  onlooker  whose  range  of  vision  was 
confined  to  what  appeared  in  the  newspapers. 

While  never  yielding  to  despair,  he  was  far  from  being 
always  confident  of  the  complete  triumph  of  the  Union,  and 
at  first  he  certainly  regarded  a  separation  as  possible,  if  not 
probable.  The  mere  extent  of  territory  over  which  the  old 
Constitution  should  be  supreme  was,  indeed,  of  less  conse 
quence  in  his  eyes  than  the  maintenance,  unimpaired,  of  the 
Constitution  itself,  and  of  the  national  traditions  which  cen 
tred  about  it,  in  the  States  which  remained  loyal.  He  was 
ready  to  devote  all  that  he  had  to  the  maintenance  of  the 
Union,  if  that  were  possible;  but  if  not,  a  free  nation  of 
Northern  and  Western  States  was  still  worth  living  for. 
Throughout  the  four  years  the  existence  of  the  war  notice 
ably  affected  the  tone  of  his  letters.  He  strove  to  write 
cheerfully,  but  there  was  always  "  this  overhanging  cloud," 
which  prevented  his  life  from  being,  as  it  might  have  been 
"  a  day  of  the  clearest  and  longest  sunshine  that  any  rational 
person  could  desire."  1 

He  by  no  means  approved  every  act  of  the  administra 
tion  during  the  war,  but  he  held  that  at  such  a  time  loyal  men 
should  refrain  from  all  public  criticism.  He  had  his  own 
opinions  and  he  expressed  them  in  private,  but  during  the 
whole  war  no  word  fell  from  him  which  could  have  added 
the  smallest  feather's  weight  to  the  burden  of  those  who  were 
charged  with  the  weighty  task  of  government. 


1  Letter  to  Sir  J.  T.  Coleridge,  February  27,  1864. 
327 


HORACE    BINNEY  [Mi.  81 


(To  Dr.  Lieber.) 

PHLLADA.,  20  Apr.,  1861. 

....  The  trial  has  come,  and  we  must  abide  it.  Farewell  to 
all  public  concern  but  that  of  maintaining  the  Constitution;  and  if 
it  fails,  which  Heaven  forbid!  getting  the  same  cut  to  sit  well  upon 
our  smaller  figure,  and  without  the  possibility  of  a  rent  or  rip  in  the 
same  place.  I  shall  not  probably  live  to  see  the  end;  but  I  shall 
breathe  a  prayer  even  to  the  last,  that  the  people  of  whom  my  family 
and  friends  are  to  be  a  part  will  never  again  be  fooled  with  the  notion 
of  a  confederation  of  sovereigns,  but  belong  confessedly  and  openly 
to  one  nation,  however  divided  into  States  or  shires,  as  much  as  to 
one  God.  .  .  . 

(To  J.  C.  Hamilton,  Esq.) 

PHILADA.,  23  April,  1861. 

I  thank  you  for  your  Sunday  letter.  The  best  day  consecrates 
the  good  deed.  I  am  heartily  glad  to  hear  what  you  say  of  Major 
Anderson  and  Fort  Sumter,  and  the  evacuation.  Taking  down  a 
flag  after  terms  of  evacuation  have  been  settled  is  not  striking  it,  nor 
lowering  it,  but  simply  removing  it  as  a  corps  or  army  does  on  its 
daily  march  or  change  of  encampment.  I  am  glad  also  that  he  did 
not  see  Beauregard  as  a  guest. 

I  saw  your  son  Schuyler  an  hour  or  so  before  he  departed  with 
the  Seventh  Regiment.  I  had  been  out  on  my  morning's  walk  of  three 
or  four  miles,  and  was  returning  up  the  east  and  west  street  opposite 
my  office,  when  I  saw  a  blue  army  coat  and  cap  in  front  of  one  of  my 
servants  at  the  office  door,  and  then  leaving  and  passing  north.  But 
the  servant  had  descried  me  coming  up  the  street,  and  ran  to  apprise 
him,  and  your  son  came  up  the  street  and  got  my  cordial  greeting. 
When  we  went  into  the  office  he  said  his  wish  was  to  obtain  of  me  any 
book  or  work  I  might  have  in  regard  to  the  British  attack  on  Wash 
ington,  and  I  gave  him  the  only  pertinent  one  I  had,  which  he  thought 
would  assist  him.  How  much  he  resembles,  in  countenance  and  fea 
tures,  his  grandfather,  with  more  height,  and  very  finely  proportioned 

328 


1861]      PERPETUITY    OF    THE    UNION 

height  and  figure  too.  It  made  my  heart  leap  to  recognize  the  lines 
of  General  Hamilton,  which  I  remember  from  boyhood.  The  blood 
speaks  in  the  prompt  answer  it  has  given  to  the  call  of  his  country. 

.  .  .  But  I  want  a  nation.  I  sigh  for  it.  I  pray  for  it:  that 
there  may  be  some  power  that  we  aU  love,  honour,  and  obey,  as  the 
power  that  comprehends  us  all  as  one  people  and  one  nation,  in  fine, 
as  our  country.  Recently  we  had  almost  none,  or  the  feeling  was  so 
buried  and  covered  up  in  our  hearts  that  we  were  hardly  conscious 
of  it.  Now  the  covering  is  off  in  this  State  and  everywhere  to  the 
north,  east,  and  west,  and  it  is  bursting  forth  as  universally  as  the 
leaves  of  the  trees  and  the  grass  of  the  fields.  This  may  be  the  bless 
ing  that  is  coming  to  us  out  of  this  fearful  war;  and  I  have  a  con 
fident  hope  that  it  will  come  and  be  established  over  much,  and  the 
best  part,  if  not  over  the  whole. 

(To  Sir  J.  T.  Coleridge.) 

PHILADELPHIA,  27  May,  1861. 

I  am  much  gratified  by  your  letter  of  2d  May,  which  got  to 
my  hands  a  few  days  ago, — thankful  for  its  sympathy,  which,  indeed, 
we  deserve,  and  will  probably  continue  to  receive  from  the  best  of 
your  people. 

I  agree  that  the  dream  of  the  perpetuity  of  this  Union,  as  it 
was  framed  at  the  close  of  our  Revolution,  has  been  terribly  dis 
turbed;  and  perhaps  we  may  never  find  it  revisiting  our  sleep  here 
after.  Personally  I  have  not  been  misled  by  the  illusions  of  the  dream 
at  any  time  from  my  youth.  Washington's  Farewell  Address  shews 
how  great  he  thought  the  difficulties  of  the  problem  were.  Hamilton, 
near  the  close  of  his  life,  assigned  fifty  years  as  the  term  of  the  Union 
and  Constitution;  and  that  period  has  just  expired.  I  have  had 
the  disadvantage  of  looking  upon  the  course  of  events  since  the  death 
of  these  great  men,  and  have  received  as  intimations  of  the  approach 
ing  end  the  successive  steps  of  what  has  been  called  the  march  of  our 
prosperity, — the  acquisition  of  Louisiana  and  Florida,  the  annexation 
of  Texas,  the  conquest  of  Mexico,  the  purchase  of  California,  the 
progress  of  our  population  westward,  and  the  progress  of  democracy 

329 


HORACE    BINNEY  MT.  81 


in  all  directions.  I  had  better  have  said  with  than  and,  for  this  has 
been  the  "  poison  in  the  pot"  throughout  ;  but  thousands  upon  thou 
sands  of  our  statesmen  have  said,  and  perhaps  have  thought,  that 
the  increase  of  democracy  was  the  best  of  our  prosperity,  and  its 
sure  foundation  from  the  beginning.  I  have  had  no  such  faith  ;  but 
have  been  a  sceptic,  in  this  only,  from  my  youth. 

This  course  of  enlargement,  pretty  much  in  manner  and  form 
as  it  has  occurred,  was  anticipated  in  all  its  features  at  an  early  day, 
with  only  one  false  conclusion,  —  that  the  development  of  the  South  and 
of  slavery  would  secure  the  rule  of  the  whole  to  that  quarter,  instead 
of  inducing  the  South  to  secede  because  the  growth  of  the  Western 
States  has  prevented  that  rule.  In  all  other  points  the  progress  was, 
I  think,  foreseen,  and  as  early  as  1803  led  to  a  design  by  some  eminent 
men  from  the  Eastern  States  to  divide  the  Union  at  that  time.  This 
was  immediately  after  Mr.  Jefferson's  purchase  of  Louisiana.  I  have 
seen  copies  of  the  letters  addressed  to  the  gentleman  who  succeeded 
Hamilton  in  the  Treasury  Department,  justifying  this  design,  tho'  I 
have  never  seen  the  replies.  The  Secretary  was  then  out  of  office. 
Hamilton  became  aware  of  it,  and  declared  himself  hostile  to  it,  even 
to  the  drawing  of  his  sword  against  it  ;  and  it  consequently  fell 
through  at  Hamilton's  death,  —  by  the  ruin  of  Burr,  who  was  to  have 
been  an  actor  in  it.  It  is  an  interesting  fact,  which  I  have  learned 
from  one  of  Hamilton's  sons,  that  his,  Hamilton's,  estimate,  just  or 
otherwise,  of  the  prejudice  among  military  men  against  any  one  of 
their  body  who  refuses  to  fight  a  duel  overruled  his  better  judgment, 
and  led  him  to  accept  Burr's  challenge,  lest  the  military  command 
might  be  lost  to  him  on  the  side  of  the  United  States  in  the  event  of 
the  projected  revolt.  Strange  conflict  which  gave  weakness  the  vic 
tory  over  both  patriotism  and  morality  ! 

But  I  do  not  at  present  entertain  the  opinion  that  the  Union 
and  Constitution  will  not  be,  to  at  least  a  great  extent,  maintained, 
notwithstanding  the  outbreak  of  the  slave  States. 

The  free  States  are  at  present  as  unanimous  in  maintaining 
both,  against  this  secession,  as  it  is  possible  for  twenty  millions  to  be  ; 
more  so  probably  than  twenty  millions  ever  were  upon  any  question 

330 


1861]      PERPETUITY   OF    THE    UNION 

whatever.  The  assault  upon  Fort  Sumter  started  us  all  to  our  feet, 
as  one  man;  all  political  division  ceased  among  us  from  that  very 
moment.  Private  relations  with  the  South  have  been  put  aside,  no 
doubt  with  great  regret.  There  is  among  us  but  one  thought,  one 
object,  one  end,  one  symbol, — the  Stars  and  Stripes.  We  are  to  a 
great  degree  at  present,  and  will  shortly  be  throughout,  an  armed 
nation.  We  have  the  whole  naval  power  of  the  country.  We  have 
nearly  all  its  money  at  command.  We  know  that  we  shall  be  both 
degraded  and  ruined  unless  this  government  is  maintained;  and  we 
are  not  so  much  embittered  at  this  time  (as  we  hope  we  shall  continue} 
as  to  be  unable  to  make  the  combat  as  respectable  in  point  of  humanity 
as  war  between  public  belligerents  can  be.  Most  of  the  seceded  slave 
States  are  much  divided.  Eastern  Tennessee,  Northern  Alabama, 
Western  Virginia,  are  wholly  in  favour  of  the  Union.  Kentucky  has 
expressly  refused  to  go  out.  Tennessee  is  still  balancing;  Missouri 
cannot  go.  Maryland,  now  that  her  mob  has  been  suppressed,  speaks 
and  acts  the  language  of  Union,  and  she  is  encouraged  to  it  by  the 
presence  of  Pennsylvania  forces  in  Baltimore  and  overhanging  her 
western  counties,  which  at  the  same  time  are  known  to  be  faithful, 
and  will  continue  so  against  her  secessionists  if  she  can.  Delaware  is 
thoroughly  Union.  It  is  the  slave-selling  and  slave-working  parts 
of  the  South  that  have  alone  desired  to  break  away, — by  no  means  all 
of  these,  nor  any  considerable  part  of  them  but  through  delusion, 
venality,  or  terror.  How  can  the  North  and  West  withhold  their 
effort  to  suppress  the  terror  which  has  enchained  so  many?  It  is 
their  sacred  duty  under  the  Constitution.  We  have,  therefore,  both 
duty  and  right  to  confirm  us  in  the  effort.  It  will,  I  have  no  doubt 
whatever,  be  strenuously  made.  We  have  no  reason  to  doubt,  from 
either  the  purposes  we  entertain,  or  the  motives  which  actuate  us,  or 
the  means  we  shall  apply,  that  God  will  help  us. 

Some  of  the  writers  for  the  English  press  have  but  an  imper 
fect  knowledge  of  the  necessities  of  the  free  States  when  they  argue 
that  the  slave  States  should  be  allowed  to  depart  and  make  another 
nation.  We  are  large  enough,  they  say, — and  that  is  true  enough, 
though  nothing  to  the  purpose.  The  North  and  West  cannot  conquer 

331 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  81 

them.  That  also  may  be  true,  and  yet  nothing  to  the  purpose.  They 
will  conquer  the  North  and  West  and  destroy  the  Union,  if  they  can 
bring  about  what  these  writers  recommend.  Consider,  Louisiana  and 
Florida  were  purchased  to  make  the  union  of  the  West  with  the  Atlan 
tic  States  possible.  They  hold  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  river  Mis 
sissippi  under  their  control,  if  they  are  left  as  they  claim  to  be.  Texas 
bounds  us  and  turns  us  in  to  the  South  on  the  western  side  of  the  Gulf. 
Our  intercourse  with  the  Pacific  States,  all  faithful  to  the  Union,  lies 
over  the  Isthmus  of  Darien.  How  can  any  part  of  the  West  continue 
in  union  with  the  North,  or  the  Pacific  be  united  to  the  Atlantic  States, 
if  an  independent  power  holds  this  control?  The  question  for  nego 
tiation  is,  Which  shall  be  the  master  of  the  gates  of  entrance  and  exit 
to  the  North  and  West?  Was  such  a  question  ever  settled  by  nego 
tiation  ?  The  States  on  the  Mississippi  and  the  Gulf  must  be  in  union 
with  the  North  and  West,  or  be  commanded  by  them,  or  the  West 
must  fly  from  the  North.  This  is  an  old  question.  I  heard  it  argued 
in  1797,  when  we  had  Spain  to  deal  with  in  regard  to  these  waters; 
and  not  a  man  South  or  North  but  held  the  opinion  I  express.  It 
was  from  our  weakness  then  that  we  did  not  conquer  them;  and  to 
this  single  end — of  maintaining  our  Union — we  bought  them  after 
wards,  which  was  better ;  but  their  importance  to  the  union  of  North 
and  West  is  just  what  it  was.  Great  Britain  knew  what  their  value 
to  the  Union  was,  when  her  forces  endeavoured  to  seize  New  Orleans 
in  1815. 

In  fine,  my  dear  sir,  I  do  not  say  we  can  conquer.  I  do  say 
that  mere  conquest  would  be  an  absurdity  in  our  relations  if  we  could 
achieve  it;  for  the  Southern  States  would  become  Territories  again, 
if  anything,  and  go  into  the  old  connection,  to  go  into  revolt  a  second 
time.  But  we  may  subdue  the  revolutionary  violence  which  has  got 
the  upper  hand;  we  may  hearten  the  friends  of  the  Union  in  those 
parts  to  vindicate  their  own  rights  in  the  Union;  and  if  we  cannot 
do  this,  we  may  detach  Louisiana,  Florida,  and  the  river  portions  of 
Mississippi,  and  Arkansas.  If  we  do  not,  then  I  admit  our  dream  of 
union  and  our  national  existence  in  its  present  form  is  gone.  And 
such  a  shame,  dishonour,  degradation,  in  the  sight  of  all  the  world! 

332 


1861]      PERPETUITY   OF    THE    UNION 

God  forbid  that  I  should  live  to  see  it!  Three  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  masters  of  slaves — not  more — breaking  down  the  power  and 
hopes  of  twenty  millions  of  freemen,  for  the  most  part  the  descend 
ants  of  Englishmen!  You  recollect  Cowley's  burst,  in  regard  to 
Cromwell's  usurpation: 

11  Come  the  eleventh  plague,  rather  than  this  should  be, 
Come  sink  us  rather  in  the  sea. 

********* 

In  all  the  chains  we  ever  bore, 

We  griev'd,  we  sigh'd,  we  wept,  we  never  blush'd  before." 

This  has  been  a  long  ramble,  my  dear  sir.  I  have  no  time  to  make  it 
shorter,  for  I  am  deep  in  a  commission  to  provide  for  the  poor  families 
of  the  mechanics  who  have  become  volunteers.2  Willingly  do  I  devote 
any  powers  of  mind  or  body  which  remain  to  me,  in  this  truly  sacred 
cause.  My  son  Horace  is  better,  but  the  typhoid  so  batters  the  fort 
that  it  takes  a  long  time  to  repair  the  breaches.  Mrs.  Binney,  I  thank 
you,  is  in  good  general  health,  tho'  entirely  restricted  to  her  chair 
and  couch. 

The  rebellion  of  the  Southern  States  soon  raised  the 
question  of  the  President's  legal  right  to  imprison  suspected 
persons  without  commitment  by  a  magistrate,  or  admission 
to  bail,  or  a  speedy  trial.  The  first  instance  of  such  an  im 
prisonment  was  apparently  that  of  John  Merryman,  of 
Maryland,  charged  with  treason  in  connection  with  the  de 
struction  of  the  railroad  leading  to  Washington,  in  order  to 
prevent  the  passage  of  troops.  He  was  arrested  on  May 
25th,  and  taken  to  Fort  McHenry,  near  Baltimore.  The 
next  day  a  Habeas  Corpus  was  issued  by  Chief  Justice  Taney, 
himself  a  Marylander,  and  with  at  least  a  very  tender  regard 
for  the  people  of  the  seceded  States  and  for  the  supposed 
legal  rights  of  all  who  sought  to  aid  the  rebellion.  The  writ 

2  Mr.  Binney  was  vice-president  of  this  commission,  and  for  a  time  quite 
active  in  it,  until  he  was  able  to  resign  his  duties  to  younger  men. 

333 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  81 

was  served,  but  General  Cadwalader,  in  command  of  the 
fort,  refused  compliance,  pleading  the  authority  of  the  Presi 
dent  to  suspend  the  privilege  of  the  writ  in  such  cases  for 
the  public  safety.  The  chief  justice  then  issued  an  attach 
ment  against  the  general  for  contempt  of  court,  but  the 
marshal  was  not  admitted  within  the  fort.  Taney  then 
announced  that  the  marshal  had  a  right  to  summon  his  posse 
and  arrest  the  general  by  force,  but  that  this  would  evidently 
be  useless,  and  he  soon  afterwards  contented  himself  with 
filing  an  opinion  to  the  effect  that  under  the  Constitution 
the  President  had  no  power  of  suspension  without  express 
authority  of  Congress,  which  had  not  been  given.  A  copy 
of  this  opinion  was  sent  to  the  President,  whose  many  worries 
it  may  have  served  to  increase  a  little. 

A  constitutional  question,  affecting  the  government's 
power  to  deal  with  treason,  naturally  interested  Mr.  Binney 
very  deeply.  He  referred  to  it  in  a  letter  of  June  24  to 
Dr.  Lieber,  and  again  at  greater  length  two  days  later. 

(To  Dr.  Lieber.) 

PHILADA.,  26  June,  1861. 

My  last  must  have  arrived  in  New  York  on  the  morning  on 
which  your  last  announced  your  appointed  departure  for  Washing 
ton.  It  contained  nothing  to  be  remembered,  but  a  reference  to  a 
very  good  paper  in  the  National  Intelligencer  of  the  22d,  on  the  sub 
ject  of  Habeas  Corpus.  It  is  a  paper  of  that  class  which  gets  the 
mind  out  of  a  rut.  On  some  subjects  the  ruts  of  the  mind  are  so  deep 
that  it  is  the  hardest  thing  in  the  world  to  get  out  of  them.  It  requires 
a  pull  beyond  ordinary  strength.  This  of  Habeas  Corpus  as  a  uni 
versal,  ever-continuing  right,  is  one  of  them ;  though  one  cannot  see 
any  good  reason  why,  if  enemies  or  rebels  suspend  the  operation  of  all 
other  laws,  a  military  commander  should  not  suspend  or  resist  the 
Habeas  Corpus  writ  to  bring  about  their  restoration.  I  may  make 
a  remark  on  the  clause  in  the  Constitution,  which  the  writer  of  the 

334 


1861]  HABEAS    CORPUS 

article  does  not  make, — viz.,  that  it  is  not  in  time  of  war  that  the 
suspension  becomes  allowable,  but  only  in  time  of  invasion  or  rebellion, 
— violent  outbroken  opposition  to  law, — facts  which  locally  displace 
the  operation  of  the  laws.  If  the  enemy  and  rebel  do  this,  why  should 
he  be  protected  by  Habeas  Corpus  in  his  liberty,  to  repeat  it  to  the  end? 
In  fine,  the  whole  question,  as  I  think  I  told  you,  is  whether  the  com- 
mander-in-chief,  in  times  of  invasion  and  rebellion,  may  not  make 
military  prisoners,  and  keep  them  prisoners.  As  a  war  right,  it  seems 
to  be  very  clear,  when  one  gets  out  of  the  rut.  .  .  . 

I  am  not  without  some  apprehension  of  the  approaching  Congress. 
I  am  quite  certain  that  the  question  of  comparative  strength  and 
endurance  between  the  North  and  the  South  is  to  be  settled  first  and 
before  any  word  of  compromise  is  uttered.  Projects  of  conciliation, 
come  from  where  they  may,  and  with  what  menace  or  cajolery  they 
may,  must  be  tabled,  not  committed,  not  debated.  I  know  of  nothing 
Congress  can  do  to  promote  a  good  reconciling  conclusion  so  much  as 
to  harness  the  Union  as  it  remains  with  good  strong  materials,  in 
the  shape  of  men,  arms,  munitions,  and  finance,  against  the  rebellion. 
They  will  be  tenfold  more  wise  than  Felix  in  putting  off  compromise 
and  conventions  to  a  convenient  season.  I  am  sure  St.  Paul  would  be 
of  my  mind. 

My  estimate  of  the  Cabinet,  as  yet  wholly  unformed,  will  wholly 
depend  on  the  scope  of  the  measures  they  shall  recommend.  If  the 
President  and  the  Cabinet  are  men,  they  can  have  it  as  I  would  have 
it,  if  they  wish.  On  this  will  depend  whether  we  are  to  have  the  one 
division  or  many ;  and  if  we  have  more,  we  shall  have  no  lawful  way 
of  reducing  them,  as  we  have  in  regard  to  the  one.  Farewell  hope, 
from  that  day !  She  will  be  gone  from  the  box. 

I  know  no  man  at  this  time  who  is  fit  for  the  office  of  chief 
justice.  The  man  to  fill  it  must  appear  before  he  is  named,  must  be 
a  messenger,  or  vox  clamantis,  as  Marshall  was,  and  as  Taney  was  not. 
The  drowning  honour  of  that  court  is  under  the  water ;  it  must  be 
plucked  up  by  the  locks.  I  would  have  the  office  kept  open  for  the 
man.  If  the  next  chief  does  not  lift  the  department  up,  it  will  go  to 

the  bottom. 

335 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  81 

My  regards  to  Professor  Bache.  I  fear  his  coast  survey  may 
suffer,  but  I  hope  not.  It  would  best  comport  with  my  views  if  the 
rule  of  administration  for  the  regular  status  of  the  country  were 
changed  as  little  as  possible,  and  war  against  rebellion  to  be  taken  as 
a  part  of  our  daily  vocation  indefinitely.  I  believe  we  can  live  under 
it,  at  this  end,  and  under  nothing  else. 


(To  J.  C.  Hamilton,  Esq.) 

PHLLADA.,  17  Aug.,  1861. 

Not  a  line  has  come  from  the  pen  of  either  to  the  other  since 
the — the — the — great  mistake.3  I  shall  never  call  it  by  any  other 
name;  nor  do  I  think  it  possible  to  imagine  a  greater,  for  the  name 
of  Scott,  for  the  success  of  our  country  at  home,  or  for  our  character 
abroad.  I  would  give  one  of  my  old  arms  to  have  prevented  it. 
Though  it  has  not  shaken  me  in  any  of  my  opinions  in  regard  to  the 
necessity  and  perfect  justification  of  our  measures  of  war  to  the  last 
extremity  against  this  nefarious  conspiracy,  and  of  the  continu 
ance  of  them  to  absolute  exhaustion,  I  have  hot,  I  may  say,  had  one 
comfortable  day  since  the  event.  I  was  apprehensive  of  it  before 
it  occurred.  I  apprehended  it  the  more  for  the  causes  which  I  saw 
were  leading  to  it.  I  could  hardly  perceive  how  an  escape  from 
it  would  happen;  and  yet  I  recoiled  from  the  thought  of  it,  as 
a  thing  that  could  not  happen  while  Scott  was  commander  of  the 
army. 

It  is  of  no  use,  however,  to  write  about  it.  The  thing  is  done, 
the  mischief,  great  and  incalculable,  is  done — the  greatest  of  all,  of 
which  the  marks  are  beginning  to  show  themselves  around  us,  around 
you,  and  everywhere,  the  outspoken  combinations  for  peace,  which 
is  surrender,  submission,  discomfiture,  disgrace.  Cannot  you  give  me 
some  comfort?  Is  it  possible  that  at  such  a  time  as  this  the  same 
unruly  popular  will  which  has  caused  our  decline  in  virtue  for  thirty 
years  is  to  rule  us  in  this  war,  to  take  the  strength  of  our  military 
leader,  so  that  he  cannot  have  his  way,  where  his  own  judgment  is  so 

8  The  forward  movement  which  ended  in  the  disaster  of  Bull  Run. 

336 


1861]  EFFECT    OF    BULL    RUN 

clear,  but  must  yield  to  the  ignorant,  wilful,  perverse  and  often  cor 
rupt  voice  of  the  press,  the  politicians,  the  office-seekers,  the  office 
holders?  Since  I  have  lost  my  confidence  in  Scott's  will,  his  deter 
mination  to  have  his  way  when  he  ought  to  have  it,  and  have  seen 
substituted  for  it  the  clamours  of  newspapers,  and  the  ten  thousand 
variant  wills  of  the  multitude,  I  positively  am  in  the  air,  and  have  no 
foothold  whatever.  I  think  precisely  as  I  did  upon  the  whole  question. 
I  have  not  changed  in  any  single  particular,  as  it  regards  either  end 
or  means,  but  I  feel  as  powerless  as  a  paralytic,  and  I  am  beginning 
to  impute  to  others  what  I  feel  in  myself. 

Are  we  in  Pennsylvania  to  be  made  as  effete  by  political  party 
as  Maryland  is?  Is  New  York  to  be  the  same?  I  verily  believe  there 
is  a  body  of  men  among  us  who  are  intent  upon  fixing  upon  New 
England  the  whole  responsibility  for  the  Civil  War,  and  of  recon 
structing  so  as  to  cut  her  off !  Sublime  conception !  Can  we  get  along 
against  the  Saracens,  with  these  eternal  cavils  about  law,  Habeas 
Corpus,  and  the  Lord  knows  what,  while  these  men  are  as  much  above 
law  as  the  Five  Points  ever  were  ?  .  .  . 

(To  Dr.  Lieber.) 

PHILADA.,  2  Sep.,  1861. 

Every  system  of  disaffection  to  the  government,  as  far  as  I 
have  detected  it,  proceeds  from  the  Democratic  leaven.  Republican, 
Bell-Everett,  American,  old  Whig,  are  generally  true.  It  may  be  so 
also  with  the  Douglas  Democrat;  but  the  Breckenridge  Democrat,  a 
blending  of  politics  with  Southern  relations,  is  detestably  false;  and 
these  men  should  not  be  permitted  to  speak  their  treason  above  their 
breath.  The  President  wants  no  more  opinions  from  anybody  in 
support  of  his  power.  Let  him  act  firmly,  as  he  has  acted  within  the 
month  past,  and  the  acquiescence  will  be  universal  with  all  whose 
opinion  has  the  least  tinge  of  patriotism  or  integrity. 

There  seems  to  be  no  way  of  establishing  a  good  paper  among 
us,  except  by  raising  a  sufficient  capital  from  men  of  congenial  opin 
ions  in  regard  to  most  public  questions.  A  half-million  of  dollars 
would  do  this,  and  a  hundred  men  might,  I  suppose,  be  found  in  New 

22  337 


HORACE    BINNEY  2Ei.  81 


York,  possibly  here,  to  furnish  the  sum,  and  to  make  a  body  of  direct 
ors  to  superintend  the  editor.  The  editor  and  writers  must  be  paid 
ad  valorem,  and  the  subscribers  must  be  willing  to  put  the  whole  fund 
afloat,  to  establish  the  paper.  If  it  cannot  after  that  establish  itself, 
and  maintain  itself,  which  is  all  that  should  be  looked  for,  it  is  because 
our  soil  has  not  been  worked  long  enough  to  bear  this  kind  of  plant. 
The  main  difficulty  is  in  selecting  the  hundred,  but  from  various 
points  I  think  it  might  be  done,  and  if  some  one  versed  in  American 
politics  would  write  down  the  heads  or  points  of  congeniality  in 
general  terms,  but  sufficiently  marked  to  guard  against  deviation  to 
any  considerable  extent,  the  thing  might  be  easily  tried. 

I  should  like  to  see  you  so  employed  or  engaged.  You  have 
the  principles,  the  knowledge,  and  the  power  of  writing.  In  general 
our  papers  belong  to  parties,  and  parties  in  the  main  are  as  poor 
things  as  the  papers  devoted  to  them.  .  .  . 

I  should  be  glad  to  see  an  historical  exhibit  of  the  progress 
of  nations  in  the  usages  of  war.  I  am  satisfied  that  all  the  improve 
ments  have  proceeded  from  increased  civilization,  and  that  while  mod 
ern  wars  are  generally  shorter  and  more  decisive  than  they  formerly 
were,  they  disturb  less  than  they  did  the  progress  of  general 
civilization. 

The  Saracens  of  the  South  go  to  every  possible  extent  of  fero 
city  and  devastation,  as  in  Missouri  at  this  time;  not  so  much  in 
destruction  of  life  as  in  devastation  of  property.  Loss  of  life  will 
come  next.  Hear  what  Beauregard  writes,  that  he  will  in  a  short 
time  make  us  pay  for  all  our  devastations  of  Southern  soil  !  I  should 
be  glad  if  we  had  a  firm  foot  upon  it  anywhere  ;  if  only  to  show  the 
South  that  devastation  of  either  life  or  property  does  not  belong  to 
the  government  side  of  rebellion,  or  the  present  age.  Generally  the 
masses  go  free  and  the  few  guilty  chiefs  ransom  them.  After  the 
contest  is  ended,  the  country  gets  sooner  into  joint,  the  less  has  been 
the  dislocation.  If  we  get  to  hanging  each  other,  and  burning  or 
pillaging  each  other's  houses,  we  shall  go  back  two  hundred  years  in 
civilization,  and  never  perhaps  in  this  continent  return  to  the  recent 
condition. 

338 


1861]  THE    CIVIL    WAR 

But  is  it  not  clear  that  what  the  South  shall  persist  in  doing 
the  North  must  do?  This  is  to  me  an  awful  necessity,  if  it  shall 
be  one. 

(To  Sir  J.  T.Coleridge.) 

PHILADELPHIA,  3  Oct.,  1861. 

I  am  heartily  thankful  to  you  for  your  letter  written  at  the 
close  of  the  month  of  August.  Though  this  horrid  war  brings  anx 
ieties  upon  all  or  most  of  us,  and  some  very  painful  ones  upon  myself 
especially,  I  am  not  so  engrossed  by  them  as  to  forget  my  "  English 
correspondent,"  or  to  pass  without  regret  an  interval  of  any  length 
without  hearing  from  him  or  of  him.  The  last  interval  has  appeared 
rather  long,  as  neither  myself  nor  my  son  Horace  could  answer  our 
family  inquiries  in  regard  to  you  and  yours  for  some  months.  We 
feel  as  if  we  had  a  sort  of  family  connection  with  you, — are  very 
proud  of  it, — and  mark  its  interruptions  with  something  like  the 
same  uneasiness  which  has  attended  the  closure  of  intercourse  since 
June  last  with  our  blood  and  marriage  relatives  in  South  Carolina  and 
Louisiana.  This  reference  will  shew  you  the  nature  of  some  of  the 
troubles  that  are  upon  us ;  and,  I  say  it  with  great  truth,  the  letters 
of  yourself  or  your  son  to  me  or  to  Horace  will  be  an  alleviation  of 
them.  I  must  add,  however,  for  myself,  that  not  being  of  a  very 
anxious  temper,  and  having  a  firm  confidence  in  the  Providence  of 
God  for  the  ultimate  well-being  of  those  who  trust  in  Him  and  en 
deavour  to  honour  Him,  by  striving  to  do  right  and  to  be  right,  I 
habitually  suppress  anxiety,  and  generally  succeed  when  I  find  myself 
in  the  path  of  my  duty,  as  upon  reflection  I  think  it  is  marked  out 
to  me. 

Upon  the  subject  of  this  Civil  War,  as  other  nations  are  enti 
tled  to  regard  it,  of  this  wholly  inexcusable  rebellion,  as  we  call  it,  I 
have  made  up  my  mind  thoroughly,  as  all  the  moderate  men  I  know 
have  done ;  and  this,  after  cutting  away  as  much  as  possible  every 
thing  that  could  disturb  my  judgment.  Let  me  note  my  conclusions 
as  in  a  brief  for  argument  in  a  court  of  enlightened  conscience. 

1.  That  the  secession  was  the  work  of  political  ambition,  aim 
ing  to  overthrow  the  Constitution  of  the  whole  country,  and  not  merely 

339 


HORACE    BINNEY  MT.  81 


to  collect  the  present  slave  States  under  a  separate  constitution.  The 
danger  was  and  is,  to  make  the  institutions  of  the  country  conform 
to  the  interests  of  slave  labour,  its  indefinite  propagation  and  estab 
lishment. 

2.  That  this  end  did,  in  the  judgment  of  those  whose  scheme 
it  was,  require  military  means,  to  be  used  offensively,  and  to  the  whole 
extent  that  should  be  necessary  to  suppress  opposition. 

3.  That  the  field  of  their  work  was  not  to  be  within  the  slave 
States,  but  beyond  them;    and  consequently  that  the  war  was  to  be 
upon  us,  while  their  slaves  would  be  uninterrupted  in  their  labour; 
and  their  first  assault  was  to  be  upon  Washington  to  unseat  the  Con 
stitutional  government,  and  to  give  the  prestige  of  this  position  to 
their  new  government. 

4.  The  frauds  in  their  progress,  whether  by  aid  of  the  Secre 
taries  of  War,  Treasury,  Navy,  or  Interior,  during  Buchanan's  time, 
and  with  his  connivance,  and  whether  by  taking  the  funds  of  the 
government,  or  its  arms,  or  assisting  to  break  down  the  credit  of  the 
Treasury,  are  mere  aggravation;    but  they  marked  the  dangers  I 
impute  to  them  as  clearly  as  their  instant  uprising,  the  seizure  of  forts, 
and  the  creation  of  an  army  and  its  incessant  progress  towards  Wash 
ington  during  Buchanan's  administration,  when  they  knew,  and  had 
known  for  months,  that  the  Lincoln  administration,  whatever  its  de 
signs,  could  do  nothing  to  injure  them  if  their  own  Senators  and 
Representatives  appeared  in  their  places  in  Congress. 

These,  my  dear  sir,  are  my  convictions  ;  and  the  result  with 
me  is  that  the  free  States  had,  and  at  this  time  have,  no  alternative 
but  to  oppose  them  by  military  force  until  they  are  repressed. 

I  think  that  in  England  a  great  many  have  not  sufficiently 
considered  our  case.  There  are  several  stages  in  such  a  contest,  and 
there  are  considerations  appropriate  to  each.  In  all  of  them  the 
honour  of  a  people,  an  inestimable  possession,  I  need  not  say  how 
composed,  is  of  first  importance  to  ourselves  and  in  the  eyes  of  the 
world.  It  can  never  be  sacrificed  by  a  nation  to  save  property  or  life. 
In  some  of  the  stages,  this  being  safe,  political  considerations  may 
more  safely  rule. 

340 


1861]  THE    CIVIL    WAR 

We  are  now  in  the  very  first  stage,  and  the  contest  of  our  gov 
ernment  is  for  life — for  the  liberty  of  exercising  any  free  choice  at 
all  as  to  the  future.  We  must  repress  them,  or  we  perish  as  a  nation. 
Can  the  sagacious  statesmen  of  Europe  advise  us,  at  this  time,  to  offer 
the  Southern  slave  States  what  they  have  asked — or  anything — now 
that  their  armies  are  clutching  at  the  seat  of  our  government?  The 
thing  is  simply  impossible  to  a  people  that  have  any  sense  of  honour, 
not  to  say  any  attachment  to  their  Constitution.  Mr.  Dallas  said 
truly  in  his  late  speech,  "  Fight  we  must,"  and  not  a  man  in  the  free 
States,  who  has  any  sense  of  national  honour,  thinks  otherwise.  If 
we  cannot  repress  them,  no  time  will  remain  to  us  for  anything  but  to 
submit.  But  if  we  can  repress  them,  and  shew  that  they  cannot  gain 
their  object — which  is  the  destruction  of  our  government — by  arms, 
there  will  be  time  for  reason,  for  compromise  if  practicable,  for  any 
thing  that  will  conduce  to  permanent  peace  and  concord. 

I  expressed,  in  my  last  letter  to  you,  some  of  my  own  views, 
now  very  common,  of  what  the  free  States  could  not  agree  to  and  live 
united  among  themselves.  But  this  was  all  speculation.  At  present 
we  have  before  us  not  the  superinduced,  but  the  original  purpose  of 
the  slave  States,  to  destroy  our  freedom  of  action  by  military  force, 
and  the  practical  question,  Shall  we  fight  or  yield  ?  I  must  say  in 
regard  to  this,  my  much  respected  correspondent,  that  I  have  no 
anxiety;  not  that  I  have  no  apprehension.  I  shall  meet  the  worst 
conclusion  that  present  resistance  by  arms  can  bring  us  to,  without 
having  uttered  a  word  of  compromise  to  men  of  such  designs,  demon 
strated  by  such  overt  acts,  as  calmly  as  I  should,  I  hope,  meet  my 
own  death  in  the  most  sacred  cause.  .  .  . 

I  beg  my  regards  to  your  family.  The  state  of  your  health  dis 
turbs  me ;  my  own  is  reasonably  good ;  Mrs.  Binney's,  as  it  was. 

During  the  succeeding  months  Mr.  Binney  continued  to 
think  and  read  on  the  subject  of  the  Habeas  Corpus,  and  to 
discuss  it  in  other  letters  to  Dr.  Lieber.  On  August  26  he 
mentioned  the  prospect  of  his  publishing  his  views  on  the 
subject,  and  further  correspondence  ensued.  By  the  latter 

341 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  81 

part  of  November  he  had  substantially  completed  the  pro 
posed  paper,  as  the  following  shows : 


(To  Dr.  Lieber.) 

PHILADA.,  22  Nov.,  1861. 

"  My  tidy  logic !" — that  is  to  say,  my  short-legged  logic,  I 
suppose,  my  three-legged  syllogistic,  my  short-gown  and  petticoat 
logic,  with  a  white  apron  before  it,  to  hide  spots  on  the  under  garment. 
Very  well,  I  am  more  than  satisfied.  But  you  are  to  have  in  a  short 
time  a  specimen  of  my  long-legged  logic,  perhaps  not  tidy,  perhaps 
with  spots  not  hidden,  visible  enough  to  eyes  like  yours,  the  whole 
figure  smelling  perhaps  of  apoplexy.  The  archbishop,  I  think,  had 
no  notion  of  it, — perhaps  few  archbishops  have.  I  am  sure  that  I, 
who  am  no  archbishop,  have  not.  Still  the  smell  may  be  on  the  gar 
ment,  I  assure  you  it  has  passed  through  the  fire,  and  if  the  smell 
of  smoke  is  not  on  it,  there  is  a  miracle. 

That  Habeas  Corpus  letter 4  you  wot  of,  I  burned,  and  out 
of  its  ashes  comes  a  phoenix,  forty-six  feet  high,  that  is  to  say,  feet 
as  long  as  one  of  my  quarto  pages  of  manuscript,  and  looking  rather 
superciliously  on  the  ashes  of  its  poor  mother ! 

Let  me  say,  however,  that  it  is  a  block  of  the  old  chip,  and  no 
other  wood,  only  rather  fuller  of  sap,  and  wanting  a  staff  to  support 
it  less  than  the  mater  cinerosa.  The  staff  of  many  others,  if  they 
get  to  see  it,  will  doubtless  be  laid  on  its  neck  and  shoulders.  For 
be  it  remembered  that  the  question  of  Habeas  Corpus  is  no  longer 
a  question  of  Constitution  or  law,  but  has  become  a  question  of 
Lincolnism. 

Still  I  think  my  bird  sings  a  new  song,  or  rather  she  sounds 
a  new  note.  I  confess  I  think  it  is  musical,  and  I  hope  you  will.  It 
is  a  breve,  the  longest  note  in  music,  and  for  that  reason,  no  doubt, 
called  a  breve,  by  a  sort  of  antiperistasis,  a  figure  that  makes  water 


*  A  letter  to  Dr.  Lieber,  written  in  July  or  August,  containing  Mr.  Binney's 
full  statement  of  his  views  on  the  subject.  It  had  been  returned  to  him,  on  his 
own  request,  for  revision. 

342 


1861]  HABEAS    CORPUS 

boil  in  a  man's  mouth  if  he  stands  long  enough  upon  ice,  a  pretty 
figure  certainly, — the  ice,  the  man,  and  the  boiling  water!  If  the 
world  hears  of  it,  they  may  think  I  or  my  bird  is  that  figure.  You 
shall  see  and  say.  .  .  . 

(To  Sir  J.  T.  Coleridge.) 

PHILADELPHIA,  4  Dec.,  1861. 

I  have  received  with  the  greatest  satisfaction  your  delightful 
letter  of  21  Oct.,  and  the  shorter  one  of  14  Nov.  In  regard  to  the 
extract  which  was  sent  to  the  Guardian  I  have  not  a  word  to  say.  I 
may  trust  myself  implicitly  to  you;  and  can  only  be  thankful  for 
your  using  anything  I  may  write,  to  promote  a  kind  and  just  feeling 
in  your  country  to  my  own.  Perhaps  I  would  have  omitted  the  first 
paragraph  of  the  extract,  as  it  speaks  more  of  myself  than  I  should 
have  done,  if  something  in  your  August  letter  had  not  drawn  it  from 
me.  The  extract  was  printed  in  our  newspapers  from  the  Guardian, 
with  an  editorial  remark  which  indicated  the  authorship  in  a  way 
that  my  friends  did  not  misunderstand. 

I  send  you  by  the  steamer  the  message  of  the  President  to 
Congress,  thinking  you  might  possibly,  or  perhaps  your  son,  wish  to 
see  the  whole  of  it.  It  is  a  pretty  good  photograph  of  the  writer, — 
not  handsome,  nor  even  genteel,  but  plain  speaking,  sincere,  and  rather 
sensible,  we  think.  The  character  of  this  President  has  come  to  be 
received  by  nearly  all  among  us  (the  free  North  and  West)  as  very 
frank,  unaffected,  and  honest.  I  recollect  no  President,  who  was  so 
little  known  when  he  came  into  office,  who  so  soon,  and  in  times  of  vast 
difficulty  and  very  general  self-seeking,  as  well  as  of  great  devotion 
to  public  service,  has  acquired  a  very  full  confidence  of  the  people  for 
these  qualities.  He  seems  to  be  an  entirely  sincere  and  honest  man. 
He  does  not  appear  to  think  much  of  himself,  but  is  disposed  to  give 
all  he  has,  and  is,  to  the  country;  and  to  shew  himself  always  in  his 
own  clothes.  Perhaps  he  might  get  handsomer;  but  we  have  been  so 
much  annoyed  by  pretentious  in  some  of  our  Presidents,  that  we  are 
not  sorry  to  see  a  little  more  of  the  undress  or  natural  style.  I  do 
not  know  how  it  will  strike  England  and  France,  who  shew  such  high 

343 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^BT.  81 


breeding  in  matters  of  this  kind  ;  but  we  like  it  at  this  perilous  time, 
when  suspicions  of  the  integrity  and  plain-dealing  of  that  officer  would 
produce  great  disturbance. 

The  message  is  very  discreet  in  regard  to  foreign  relations,  of 
which  it  says  nothing  in  particular.  It  has  therefore  nothing  to 
explain.  The  correspondence,  which  is  to  some  extent  given  to  Con 
gress,  will,  when  it  shall  be  printed,  give  us  a  better  notion  of  their 
position.  In  one  matter,  the  arrest  of  a  British  vessel  in  June,  upon 
the  ground  of  breach  of  blockade,  and  afterwards  released,  the  mes 
sage  is  distinct  in  recommending  compensation  for  the  delay,  and 
upon  a  right  principle. 

Two  or  three  rather  important  events  on  our  side  will  have 
come  to  your  knowledge  before  this  note  can  reach  you.  The  landing 
of  our  troops  in  Port  Royal,  at  the  junction  of  Georgia  and  South 
Carolina,  and  the  bombardment  and  capture  of  the  forts,  is  quite 
important,  as  transferring  active  operations  of  the  Union  to  Southern 
States  on  the  coast.  The  seizure  of  cotton  and  the  burning  of  it  by 
the  planters  to  avoid  seizure  are  not  much  to  my  taste,  but  they  are 
in  character  with  the  operations  by  and  against  the  secessionists 
elsewhere.  We  may  suppose  and  regret  that  such  things  will  go  on, 
on  both  sides,  from  worse  to  worse. 

Another  event  is  the  taking  of  Mason  and  Slidell,  ambassadors 
seeking  assistance,  from  an  English  ship  by  an  American  ship-of-war. 
For  personal  reasons,  the  two  men,  Mason,  of  Virginia,  having  been 
for  many  years  very  obnoxious  to  the  North,  by  his  movements  and 
speeches  in  the  Senate,  and  Slidell,  an  old  offender  in  the  same  way 
when  he  was  in  the  Senate,  and  an  egregious  filibustero  against  Cuba, 
have  been  welcomed  with  great  joy  to  one  of  our  forts.  I  had  rather 
they  had  gone  free.  The  question  between  the  countries  will  be  settled 
by  the  two  governments  in  the  usual  way.  Many  of  our  people  are 
rather  anxious  about  it,  but  I  have  told  you  I  am  not  in  that  way. 
I  hope  we  are  right,  and  if  we  are  not,  that  is  to  say,  if  the  President 
thinks  we  are  not,  I  have  no  doubt  he  will  say  so,  without  fear  of 
anybody  at  home.  It  is  desirable  for  us  to  have  as  few  questions  with 
any  foreign  government  as  possible  during  this  rebellion;  but  they 

344 


1861]  THE    CIVIL    WAR 

will  come,  and  if  our  first  aim  is  to  get  the  truth,  we  shall  probably 
get  it,  and  then  we  may  abide  it  with  safe  conscience  either  way. 

We  are  likely  to  have  a  very  troublesome,  perhaps  a  dividing, 
question  among  ourselves  as  to  the  slaves  who  come  into  our  lines. 
Various  opinions  are  broached  already  in  Congress,  as  to  emancipation, 
confiscation,  and  the  like ;  but  they  have  had  no  development  as  yet. 
I  really  hate  that  word  confiscation,  and  have  hated  it  through  my 
life.  It  is  a  word  that  carries  war  and  a  spirit  of  rapine  over  into 
peace,  and  makes  peace  a  mutilated  and  suspicious  intercourse  between 
the  nations  who  practise  it.  Virginia  already  has  unrelentingly  passed 
it  against  the  property  of  Northern  residents.  The  United  States 
have  done  nothing  of  the  kind  except  as  to  ships  or  vessels  held  in 
part  ownership  by  South  and  North.  I  hope  we  shall  keep  our  hands 
free  from  this  stain ;  but  I  fear. 

God  bless  you,  my  dear  sir,  and  your  family,  and  preserve  to 
you  and  them,  and  your  country,  the  united  condition  in  which  you 
now  live. 

The  reference  to  the  Slidell  and  Mason  affair,  in  the 
above  letter,  is  very  guarded.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  when 
Mr.  Binney  first  heard  the  news  of  their  being  taken,  he 
shared  the  general  satisfaction,  but  literally  for  a  moment 
only.  While  he  was  speaking  about  it  a  doubt  seized  his 
mind.  He  ceased  talking  and  withdrew  to  his  office.  After 
consulting  his  books  on  international  law  he  returned  to  the 
drawing-room,  where  some  of  his  family  were,  and  said, 
regretfully  but  decidedly,  "We  shall  have  to  give  them 
back." 

(To  J.  C.  Hamilton,  Esq.) 

PHILADA.,  21  Dec.,  1861. 

There  has  been  such  a  gap  between  our  letters,  probably  by 
my  fault,  that  I  am  determined  to  fill  it  up  by  wishing  beforehand  a 
"  Merry  Christmas"  to  you  and  to  all  your  family.  And  I  do  it  most 
Heartily,  not  in  the  vulgar  sense  of  laughing  or  causing  laughter,  but 


345 


HORACE    BINNEY  [M-r.Sl 

in  the  old  sense  of  sweet,  pleasant,  agreeable,  coming  from  a  thankful 
heart.  We  have  a  good  deal  to  be  sad  about  in  contemplative  moments, 
no  doubt, — on  public  accounts,  many,  on  private  accounts,  some,  as 
everybody  has ;  but  in  the  main  you  and  I  have  many  causes  of  thank 
fulness,  looking  at  the  whole  scene,  causes  on  the  return  of  that  day 
to  make  the  heart  leap  up  and  the  cheerful  voice  to  chaunt  them. 
Therefore  I  again  wish  you  a  "  Merry  Christmas,"  and  have  no  doubt 
you  wish  me  the  same. 

I  cannot  be  persuaded  that  England  is  going  to  kick  up  a 
serious  rumpus  about  our  taking  Mason  and  Slidell  out  of  one  of 
their  commercial  vessels.  I  think  she  must  be  too  proud  to  make  a 
pretext  for  war,  or  to  pick  a  quarrel  with  us,  when  she  has  no  real 
ground.  Her  character,  her  prestige  all  over  the  world,  would  be 
terribly  stained  by  it.  In  this  country  she  would  never  regain  it,  nor 
retain  it  anywhere.  She  cannot  afford  to  do  that.  Her  ministry 
may  be  pressed  by  a  vis  a  tergo  to  make  a  fuss  and  bluster  a  little  at 
home,  but  that  is  easily  modified  abroad,  and  the  whole  matter  toned 
down  to  the  footing  of  negotiation  and  explanation. 

Halleck,  I  think,  is  your  son-in-law.  I  like  his  course  both 
first  and  last.  That  is  to  say,  his  washing  the  slave  matter  from  his 
hand  at  first  was  good,  and  his  readiness  to  execute  orders  was  good 
afterwards.  I  detest  the  whole  work  of  confiscation,  and  would  do 
nothing  with  slavery,  except  as  a  war  measure  under  the  commander- 
in-chief .  Slavery  is  dead  for  all  the  harm  it  can  do  to  us.  Let  us 
deal  with  it  with  some  regard  to  the  Union  proprietors  at  least,  and 
to  the  slaves  themselves.  The  end,  if  it  comes,  and  when  it  comes, 
will  arrange  matters  on  the  proper  footing.  .  .  . 

Early  in  December  the  paper  on  the  Habeas  Corpus  was 
complete,  and  Mr.  Binney  was  able  to  critically  review  his 
work.  The  seriousness  of  the  question  naturally  made  him 
cautious,  and  his  regard  for  the  Constitution  did  not  dispose 
him  to  favour  any  loose  or  merely  popular  construction  of 
its  language.  At  first  he  thought  he  might  have  gone  too 
far  in  that  direction  himself,  that  the  judicial  spirit  in  which 

346 


1861]  HABEAS    CORPUS 

he  desired  to  treat  the  matter  had  been  overcome  by  the  wish 
to  make  out  a  case  on  the  government's  side.  He  realized 
that  he  was  entering  an  arena  of  conflict,  and  foresaw  prac 
tically  all  the  objections  which  would  be  made  to  his  view, 
at  least  all  those  which  would  deserve  any  attention.  Ulti 
mately,  however,  he  condemned  them  as  too  narrow  and 
technical,  and  returned  to  his  original  intention  of  publish 
ing.  The  pamphlet  bears  date  December  23,  and  appeared 
very  shortly  afterwards. 

Some  weeks  after  Merryman's  arrest  the  Attorney- 
General,  Mr.  Bates,  had  given  an  opinion  to  the  effect  that 
the  President,  as  the  executive  department  of  the  govern 
ment,  sworn  to  "  preserve,  protect,  and  defend"  the  Consti 
tution,  necessarily  had  the  power  to  arrest  and  imprison  the 
suspected  accomplices  of  insurgents.  As  to  the  Habeas 
Corpus  clause,  he  said,  "  Very  learned  persons  have  differed 
widely  about  the  meaning  of  this  short  sentence,  and  I  am 
by  no  means  confident  that  I  fully  understand  it  myself." 
Whatever  that  clause  might  mean,  however,  he  was  confident 
about  the  President's  power  to  detain  suspects,  so  much  so 
that  he  thought  it  "  not  very  important  whether  we  call  a 
particular  power  exercised  by  the  President  a  peace  power 
or  a  war  power,  for,  undoubtedly,  he  is  armed  with  both." 

In  the  North  American  Review  for  October,  Ex-Chief 
Justice  Parker  of  New  Hampshire,  at  that  time  Royall 
Professor  of  Law  at  Harvard,  had  argued  that  the  existence 
of  martial  law  involved  the  right  to  detain  persons  suspected 
of  complicity  in  insurrection,  and  that,  as  Fort  McHenry 
was  under  martial  law,  the  writ  could  not  reasonably  com 
mand  obedience  there.  Other  writers  had  held  that  the 
President  could  suspend  the  privilege  of  the  writ  by  virtue 
of  his  military  power  as  commander-in-chief . 

To  Mr.  Binney's  mind  the  Attorney-General's  position 

347 


HORACE    BINNEY  [_MT.  82 

was  wholly  unscientific  and  untenable,  especially  as  the  Con 
stitution  had  provided  expressly  for  the  suspension,  under 
certain  specified  conditions.  He  agreed  with  parts  of  Judge 
Parker's  article,  but  considered  that  his  views  as  to  martial 
law  went  a  great  deal  too  far,  and  that  it  was  more  danger 
ous,  more  inconsistent  with  the  whole  spirit  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  to  sustain  the  suspension  as  an  exercise  of  military 
power  or  of  martial  law,  than  even  to  deny  all  power  of 
suspension  without  express  authority  of  Congress.  The 
privilege  of  the  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus  being  a  purely  civil 
privilege,  he  regarded  the  power  of  suspension  as  a  civil 
power,  just  as  completely  so  as  the  power  to  arrest.  The 
exercise  of  the  power  of  suspension,  being  confined  to  times 
of  rebellion  or  invasion,  was  of  course  intended  to  aid  the 
suppression  of  rebellion  or  the  repelling  of  invasion,  and 
was  in  that  sense  supplementary  to  the  military  power,  but 
still  entirely  distinct  from  it.  He  therefore  held  that  the 
power  of  suspension  must  result  from  the  Habeas  Corpus 
clause  alone,  and  that  the  only  question  was  whether  the 
Constitution  intended  this  power  to  be  exercised  by  the 
President  or  by  Congress. 

As  this  question  had  to  be  answered  by  inference  only, 
any  convincing  solution  of  it  required  very  close  reasoning, 
and  such  Mr.  Binney's  reasoning  undoubtedly  was.  He 
pointed  out  that  the  suspension  contemplated  was  not  a  sus 
pension  of  a  Habeas  Corpus  act,  such  as  Parliament  had 
at  times  effected,  but  merely  of  the  privilege  of  the  writ  in 
individual  cases,  so  that  the  English  authorities  did  not 
apply;  that  when  the  clause  was  before  the  Constitutional 
Convention  it  had  been  proposed  to  provide  for  a  suspen 
sion  by  the  Legislature,  but  that  this  was  not  agreed  to ;  that 
the  words  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  in  Ex  parte  Bolman, 
relied  on  by  Taney,  were  altogether  obiter  and  of  no 

348 


1862]  HABEAS    CORPUS 

authority;  and  that  the  actual  suspension  of  the  privilege 
in  any  given  case  would  have  to  be  the  act  of  the  Executive, 
whether  Congress  authorized  it  by  statute  or  not.  His  con 
clusion  was  that  the  Constitution,  having  stated  the  only 
conditions  under  which  the  power  could  be  exercised,  ren 
dered  Congressional  action  superfluous,  and  that  the  inten 
tion  was  to  place  the  power  in  the  President's  hands. 

From  the  nature  of  the  case  no  conclusion  could  be  stated, 
on  either  side,  with  positive  assurance.  The  most  that  Mr. 
Binney  could  say  was  that  it  was  "  both  Constitutional  and 
safe  to  argue"  that  the  power  was  so  placed.  He  could  not 
have  expected  to  command  universal  assent,  and  the  publica 
tion  of  his  views  was  the  signal  for  a  pamphlet  fusilade  on 
the  part  of  those  who  differed  from  him.  Some  of  these 
writers  were  outspoken  in  support  of  the  energetic  suppres 
sion  of  the  rebellion,  while  others  were  well-known  advocates 
of  the  right  of  secession.  Some  deserved  to  be  answered 
seriously,  but  this  can  hardly  be  said  of  all.  A  few  of  their 
pamphlets  had  already  appeared  before  the  date  of  the  fol 
lowing  letter. 

(To  Sir  J.  T.  Coleridge.) 

PHILADELPHIA,  17  March,  1862. 

I  thank  you  cordially  for  your  letter  of  the  12th  February, 
and  for  the  suggestion  of  your  doubts  upon  the  reasoning  of  the 
tract  which  my  son  sent  you.  No  man,  I  think,  can  write  from  con 
viction  or  persuasion  of  the  truth  without  being  ready  to  welcome, 
from  any  quarter,  and  especially  from  a  friend,  suggestions  of  reason 
able  doubt  or  dissent;  and  it  was  from  this  persuasion,  tho'  rather 
unwillingly,  that  I  wrote,  and  after  inviting  the  close  attention  and 
criticism  of  some  professional  friends,  at  their  solicitation,  printed  the 
tract  upon  the  "  Privilege  of  the  Writ  of  Habeas  Corpus  under  the 
Constitution."  I  did  not  rely  implicitly  upon  this  solicitation,  for  I 
knew  how  deceptive  such  expressions  are  in  general;  but  having  their 

349 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^T.  82 


concurrence  in  the  answers  which  I  thought  might  be  given  to  certain 
objections  which  I  stated  to  them,  among  which  is  the  first  suggestion 
in  your  letter,  the  state  of  the  public  mind  induced  me  to  print,  with 
out  answering  them  by  anticipation,  and  to  leave  them,  and  any  others 
which  might  appear,  to  a  reply.  The  first  and  principal  doubt  of 
your  letter  has  been  in  one  instance  suggested  and  argued  here,  tho* 
not  with  as  much  force;  and  I  shall  give  my  answer  to  it,  if  my  life 
and  health  are  spared,  and  will  take  care  that  a  copy  of  my  answer, 
whatever  it  may  be,  shall  be  sent  to  you. 

I  had  doubts  myself  whether  the  profession  in  England  would 
be  sufficiently  familiar  with  a  peculiarity  of  our  Constitution  on  which 
the  answer  to  the  objection  turns,  to  avoid  making  it;  and  stated 
the  peculiarity  in  a  recent  letter  to  your  son,  who  was  so  obliging  as 
to  write  me,  in  return  for  some  book  or  tract  which  my  son  sent  him 
with  my  inscription  on  the  title-page.  I  will  now  say  no  more  about 
the  objection  than  that  Chief  Justice  Taney,  in  his  opinion  on  Merry- 
man's  case,  Mr.  Justice  Story  in  his  Commentaries,  and  every  writer 
whose  opinion  I  had  previously  seen,  had  deduced  the  authority  from 
the  Habeas  Corpus  clause,  and  not  from  any  general  power  of  sus 
pension  in  Congress,  of  which  that  clause  is  a  mere  restriction.  I  am 
persuaded  that  no  such  general  power  exists,  or,  before  the  clause 
was  introduced,  existed  in  Congress,  and  that  the  clause  is  not  merely 
restrictive,  but  conveys  all  the  power  that  either  Congress  or  the 
President  has  upon  the  subject.  Certainly  the  clause  gives  the  author 
ity  indirectly  and  by  inversion  ;  and  a  reason  for  it  may  be  found  in 
the  condition  of  the  General  Convention,  a  body  as  full  of  divisions, 
jealousies,  devices,  and  artifices  to  carry  their  party  points  as  any 
Congress  we  have  ever  had,  and  perhaps  more  so.  The  course  most 
favourable  to  the  end  proposed  by  the  mover  of  the  clause  was  to 
disaffirm  the  suspension  power  generally,  which  the  State  rights  party 
hold  to  be  the  condition  of  things  under  the  Constitution,  if  the  excep 
tion  was  not  affirmed,  and  to  affirm  the  exception  indirectly. 

The  limitation  of  the  legislative  power  under  the  Constitution 
(nothing  being  vested  in  Congress  but  what  was  therein  granted), 
the  principles  asserted  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  in  the 

350 


1862]  HABEAS    CORPUS 

Bills  of  Rights  in  the  States,  the  character  of  the  Articles  of  Confed 
eration,  and  the  Preamble  to  the  Constitution,  shew  to  the  American 
mind  that  Congress  would  have  had  no  authority  from  its  granted 
powers  to  impair  personal  liberty  discretionally,  or  its  securities  by 
the  common  law,  or  by  the  fundamental  principle  of  every  free  gov 
ernment,  except  by  this  clause;  and  that  to  leave  it  out  was  to  leave 
the  government  without  a  power  of  suspending  the  privilege  of  Habeas 
Corpus  in  rebellion  or  invasion,  whatever  the  public  safety  might 
require.  The  existence  of  any  exception  was  therefore  the  point  in 
question,  principally ;  the  body  on  which  the  power  of  the  exception 
was  placed,  secondarily  or  subordinately. 

I  had  thought,  indeed,  that  by  the  principles  of  the  English 
Constitution,  properly  speaking,  Parliament  had  no  such  legislative 
power  as  to  imprison  a  man  and  hold  him  imprisoned  without  trial; 
and  that  this  was  authorized  by  Parliament,  by  an  imperial  power  for 
the  public  safety,  in  times  of  public  danger  and  necessity,  as  it  alters, 
when  it  becomes  necessary,  the  succession  to  the  crown,  or  makes  an 
acknowledged  change  of  the  Constitution;  and  that  it  secured  the 
parties  to  the  unconstitutional  wrong  of  arresting  and  detaining  sus 
pected  persons  without  trial,  by  bills  or  acts  of  indemnity.  In  those 
acts,  called  suspensions  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  there  is  no  word 
of  reference  I  believe  to  that  Act,  nor  do  Parliament  treat  the  Im 
prisonment  Acts  as  a  justification  by  the  Constitution  and  law  of 
England  of  what  is  done  under  them.  They  authorize  the  wrong,  and 
discharge  the  right  of  complaint  absolutely.  Such,  at  least,  was  my 
impression.  Congress,  I  suppose,  has  no  such  powers  by  the  eighth 
section  of  the  first  article,  nor  any  powers  of  the  kind,  unless  they 
are  given  by  the  Habeas  Corpus  clause  in  the  ninth  section.  How 
far  these  powers  extend  I  pretend  not  to  say.  Unless  the  clause  in 
the  Constitution  is  both  a  power  and  an  indemnity  to  those  who  exer 
cise  it,  our  condition  is  remarkable.  I  will  not,  however,  weary  you 
at  present  with  any  more  on  this  point.  .  .  . 

You  may  think  it  strange  that  at  my  age,  I,  who  have  never 
been  a  politician,  should  have  concerned  myself  with  such  a  question; 
but  neither  the  public  nor  our  friends  will  permit  us  to  take  off  our 

351 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^BT.  82 


harness  merely  to  please  ourselves.  Had  not  the  tract  appeared  to 
quiet  at  a  critical  moment  the  minds  of  a  good  many  patriotic  men, 
and  brought  me  a  great  many  letters  from  professional  men  and  others 
approving  of  it,  including  one  judge  and  one  eminent  chief  justice, 
before  whom  the  question  cannot  come  judicially,  I  should  have 
thought  that  my  friends  had  been  too  importunate  and  myself  too 
acquiescing.  The  chief  justice  wrote  to  me  that  the  tract  had  changed 
his  opinion,  as  he  formed  it  after  the  opinion  of  the  Attorney-General 
had  been  presented  to  Congress.  But  all  this  is  very  little  to  the 
purpose. 

Our  awful  civil  war  goes  on,  and  our  most  prodigal  sacrifices 
of  life  and  treasure.  Some  among  us  say  that  the  crisis  is  approach 
ing.  I  have  no  opinion  about  this.  The  crisis  of  such  a  disease,  how 
ever  it  be  passed,  is  not  the  cure,  not  the  assurance  of  it.  The  disease 
may  leave  a  poison  behind  it,  and  kill  in  another  form  by  decay  after 
the  fever  has  passed  away.  God  only  knows  what  is  to  be  the  end  of 
it;  and  to  His  own  providence  old  age  at  least  is  wise  in  submitting, 
as  I  do,  with  prayers  for  His  protection  and  mercy. 

We  feel,  I  think,  more  kindly  towards  England  since  the  settle 
ment  of  the  Trent  affair;  and  perhaps  Mr.  Seward  —  I  ought  to  say 
the  President,  for  he  is  not  thought  to  be  a  cipher  in  such  matters  — 
did  well  in  not  announcing  too  promptly  his  purpose  or  inclination 
to  the  people.  He  gains  daily  upon  all  of  us,  in  the  great  attributes 
of  integrity,  a  love  of  justice,  clear  good  sense,  untiring  industry, 
and  patriotism.  He  also  is  thought  to  know  the  people,  which  is  a 
great  matter,  as  he  came  in  without  the  reputation  of  being  able  to 
lead  them  by  command. 

I  ought  to  have  said  that  I  have  not  heard  of  his  making  any 
proclamation  on  the  subject  of  the  Habeas  Corpus,  nor  do  I  know 
how  his  warrant  or  warrants  may  describe  his  purpose,  nor  even 
whether  his  action  is  civil  or  military.  It  has  probably  been  both 
ways.  Congress  is  now  quiescent,  perhaps  acquiescent.  How  it  may 
be  a  few  weeks  hence  I  cannot  say.  There  are  said  to  be  two  parties 
in  that  body,  one  of  which  is  thought  to  be  disposed  to  bring  on 
emancipation  forcibly.  What  its  strength  is,  is  unknown  to  me,  and, 

352 


1862]  HABEAS    CORPUS 

I  learn,  not  generally  known.     The  President  it  is  said  is  not  so 
disposed.  .   .  . 

P.  S.-—I  will  place  in  a  postscript  my  serious  doubt  whether, 
if  the  President  has  not  the  power  to  suspend  the  privilege  of  the 
writ,  it  will  ever  be  suspended  in  this  nation.  To  deny  his  power  is, 
I  more  than  doubt,  to  extinguish  the  power  practically.  That  ques 
tion,  when  brought  before  Congress,  is  brought  directly  before  the 
universal  people. 

(To  Dr.  Lieber.) 

PHILADA.,  20  March,  1862. 

.  .  .  Burnside's  affair  seems  to  have  been  really  great,  not 
more  in  the  achievement  than  in  the  heroic  struggle  and  fight.  I 
believe  that  before  this  time  the  miserable  taunts  of  the  chivalry 
against  Northern  and  Western  courage  must  have  come  back  to  them, 
and  brought  a  ghastly  sinking  of  spirit.  I  was  glad  to  see  those 
Massachusetts  men  flashing  their  bayonets  in  the  faces  of  the  enemy 
until  they  retired,  which  they  certainly  did  not  "  eyes  front"  to  the 
bayonets. 

There  has  been  quite  a  galaxy  of  pamphlets  against  me  from, 
I  understand,  a  part  of  the  bar.  I  have  no  knowledge  of  the  parties 
except  in  one  or  two  instances.  They  are  said  to  be  of  secession  dis 
positions,  and  of  that  portion  of  the  Democratic  party  which  voted 
for  Breckenridge ;  and  as  far  as  I  know  them,  it  is  true  from  internal 
evidence.  I  have  read  nearly  all,  I  suppose,  to  find  if  there  was  any 
political  or  constitutional  law  in  them,  but  I  find  only  this :  ( 1 )  That 
the  clause  gives  no  power,  but  is  a  mere  restriction,  and  that  but  for 
the  clause,  Congress  would  have  unlimited  power  to  suspend  the  writ 
at  any  time.  (2)  That  in  the  State  conventions  delegates  said  the 
power  was  in  Congress,  the  point  not  being  whether  President  or  Con 
gress,  but  whether  the  United  States  ought  to  have  the  power,  or  only 
the  States.  (3)  That  the  bills  of  rights  of  the  States  say  no  law 
shall  be  suspended  except  by  legislative  authority.  The  first  is  fla 
grantly  wrong,  and  makes  Congress  constitutionally  able,  under  the 
power  to  organize  the  inferior  courts,  to  disorganize  them.  The 
23  353 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  82 

second  is  setting  up  impressions  formed  on  one  point  to  decide  the 
construction  on  another  when  it  is  mere  talk  either  way.  The  third 
is  founded  upon  the  new  principle  that  the  Constitution  is  not  as 
strong  as  the  Legislature. 

I  shall  be  glad  to  hear  of  any  others,  and  will  in  due  time  notice 
them.  I  rather  infer  that  the  number  of  pamphleteers  is  the  result 
of  a  combination  to  work  the  question  up  for  party  use.  I  shall  not 
notice  them,  but  their  points,  if  I  find  any. 

As  foreshadowed  in  the  preceding  letters,  Mr.  Binney 
published  in  April  a  second  pamphlet  on  the  suspension, 
analyzing  and  answering  the  objections  which  had  been  made 
to  his  views.  The  most  forcible  objection  was  that  of  Judge 
Nicholas,  of  Louisville,  and  some  others,  that  the  Habeas 
Corpus  clause  did  not  give  the  power  of  suspension  to  any 
one,  but  merely  limited  the  power  granted  to  Congress  by 
other  provisions  of  the  Constitution.  Unfortunately  for 
Judge  Nicholas,  however,  he  had  no  very  exact  idea  of  the 
Congressional  power,  which  he  thought  included  that  of 
suspension,  and  he  vaguely  pointed  to  a  power  "  to  regulate 
the  courts."  As  Mr.  Binney  pointed  out,  the  Constitution 
gave  no  such  power,  but  merely  a  power  "  to  constitute  tri 
bunals  inferior  to  the  Supreme  Court,"  a  very  different  mat 
ter,  which  could  not  possibly  include  the  suspension  of  the 
privilege  of  Habeas  Corpus. 

In  his  younger  days,  when  the  country  near  Philadelphia 
was  better  stocked  with  game  birds  than  now,  Mr.  Binney 
had  been  quite  fond  of  shooting,  and  it  was  probably  some 
memory  of  pleasant  tramps  with  dog  and  gun  that  suggested 
the  words  with  which  he  closed  his  demolition  of  Judge 
Nicholas's  objection. 

It  profits  not,  therefore,  the  covey  of  reviewers  from  the  Phila 
delphia  bar,  which  has  been  flushed  and  put  upon  the  wing,  by  the 

354 


1862]  HABEAS    CORPUS 

Tract  on  the  Privilege  of  the  Writ  of  Habeas  Corpus,  to  look  about 
for  some  other  branch  of  Congressional  power  to  alight  upon,  with 
more  security  than  the  Louisville  reviewer.  There  is  no  choice  left. 
All  the  branches  are  cut  away  by  that  mandate  of  the  Constitution 
which  ordains  the  constitution  of  tribunals  to  administer  the  judicial 
power.  The  question  of  the  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus  is  a  question  of 
judicial  power.  No  power  of  Congress  can  mutilate  that  department. 

(To  Dr.  Lieber.) 

PHILADA.,  17  May,  1862. 

What  is  the  use  of  logic?  Would  you  believe  that  for  all  my 
pains  I  get  an  answer  from  Judge  Nicholas,  which  amounts  to  this 
and  no  more:  If  Congress,  without  the  Habeas  Corpus  clause,  had 
taken  away  or  not  given  the  Habeas  Corpus,  how  could  the  judiciary 
have  helped  it?  God  save  the  poor  man  who  wastes  lamp-oil  upon 
such  heads!  He  does  not  perceive  that  this  reduces  it  to  a  question 
of  force.  I  might  ask  him,  If  the  President  will  imprison  without 
law,  how  is  Congress  to  help  it? 

I  think  it  material  to  remark  that  if  any  one  infers  from  my 
pamphlets  that  I  think  Congress  cannot  indemnify  the  parties  to  the 
wrong,  he  goes  in  advance  of  me.  Without  the  Habeas  Corpus  sus 
pension  power,  they  certainly  cannot  do  it.  That  I  have  denied.  The 
power  to  indemnify  may  belong  to  the  dictatorial  or  imperial  power 
of  England ;  though  in  its  indefinite  extent  it  is  an  exorbitant  wrong. 
But  without  the  Habeas  Corpus  clause  it  would  not  belong  to  the 
Federal  government  at  all.  With  that  clause,  however,  if  Congress 
has  the  power  of  suspension,  and  not  the  President,  why  does  not  the 
ratihabitio  cover  the  whole  wrong,  for  the  President's  protection?  It 
strikes  me  that  this  matter  ought  not  to  be  neglected  by  the  President's 
friends  in  the  two  houses,  while  they  are  the  majority.  Party  is  in 
finitely  rash  and  bitter  at  times,  and  our  parties  are  like  the  tides  in 
the  Euripus,  which  ebb  and  flow  seven  times  a  day.  No  one  can 
explain  the  present  phenomena  of  party  in  the  houses;  at  least  I 
cannot,  and  will  not  drown  myself  in  the  strait,  as  they  say  Aristotle 
did,  because  he  could  not  explain  the  tides  in  it.  In  general  the  thing 

355 


HORACE   BINNEY  \_MT.  82 

is  not  worth  hanging  for ;  but  I  should  be  sorry  to  see  the  President 
come  to  grief  between  a  bitter  judiciary  and  a  bitter  jury.  I  believe 
him  an  honest  man,  and  wish  him  well. 

Is  your  son  Hamilton  nearly  well,  and  Norman,  where  is  he? 
Mustn't  we  have  a  great  fight  near  Richmond?  It  is  said  General 
Scott  thinks  it  will  be  done  without. 

P.  S. — Unless  we  fight  and  whip  in  both  places,  Corinth  and 
Richmond,  England  and  France  will  come  in,  I  fear,  with  their  moral 
intervention.  So  I  guess ;  I  will  not  condescend  to  fear  it. 

As  a  practical  matter  Mr.  Binney  thought  it  very  de 
sirable  that  his  view  should  prevail  as  to  the  President  having, 
under  the  Constitution,  the  power  to  suspend  the  privilege 
of  Habeas  Corpus,  because  it  seemed  very  unlikely  that  Con 
gress  would  develop  enough  resolution  to  risk  unpopularity 
by  authorizing,  even  in  times  of  rebellion,  the  suspension  of 
one  of  the  safeguards  of  civil  liberty.  He  feared  that  unless 
the  President  could  suspend,  the  privilege  of  the  writ  could 
not  practically  be  suspended  under  any  circumstances  what 
ever.  After  the  war  had  been  going  on  for  two  years,  how 
ever,  and  the  election  of  1862  had  shown,  on  the  whole,  an 
endorsement  of  the  administration,  the  Act  of  March  3, 
1863,5  was  passed,  authorizing  the  President,  as  long  as  the 
rebellion  lasted,  to  suspend  the  privilege  of  the  writ  in  any 
instance  where  in  his  judgment  public  safety  required  it. 
The  same  act  required  that  the  names  of  all  persons  so  held 
should  be  certified  to  the  United  States  Court  of  the  Dis 
trict,  and  that  unless  the  prisoner  were  indicted  by  the  next 
grand  jury  he  should  be  discharged.  This  regulation  of  the 
President's  exercise  of  the  power  of  suspension  was  probably 
reasonable  in  itself,  but  the  passage  of  the  act  did  not  aif ect 


12  Stats.,  755. 
356 


1862]  HABEAS    CORPUS 

Mr.  Binney's  conviction  as  to  the  constitutional  question,  and 
two  years  later  he  took  the  matter  up  again.  In  this  con 
nection  it  should  be  noted  that  he  strongly  disapproved  of 
so  much  of  the  President's  proclamation  of  September  24, 
1862,  as  extended  martial  law  and  suspension  of  the  Habeas 
Corpus  to  military  arrests  for  discouraging  enlistments,  or 
for  other  disloyal,  but  not  legally  treasonable,  acts.  This 
proclamation  went  far  beyond  anything  that  Mr.  Binney's 
pamphlets  had  justified,  but  he  refrained  from  any  public 
expression  of  his  views,  as  he  thought  it  the  duty  of  loyal 
citizens  not  to  hamper  the  administration  by  protests,  al 
though  it  might  make  mistakes  or  even  exceed  its  legal 
power. 

(To  J.  C.  Hamilton,  Esq.) 

PHILADA.,  4  Aug.,  1862. 

.  .  .  You  ask  me  if  it  is  not  a  crisis.  Perhaps  it  is;  but  I 
think  we  shall  go  through  it,  if  the  government  will  be  firm  in  its 
demand,  without  fearing  or  addressing  the  political  disaffection  which 
is  trying  to  disturb  the  country,  as  if  the  question  were  a  mere  ques 
tion  of  party.  This  spirit  must  be  put  down,  and  it  can  only  be  put 
down  by  not  truckling  to  it,  but  by  denouncing  and  counteracting  it 
with  decision.  To  suffer  men  in  our  States  having  loyal  governors, 
and  they,  with  the  Federal  government,  holding  in  their  hands  all 
the  military  force  and  all  the  law,  to  deter  or  dissuade  men  from  en 
listment,  on  any  pretence  or  ground  whatever,  would  be  criminal  weak 
ness.  The  offence  is  treasonable.  If  it  is  regarded  as  within  the 
liberty  of  public  or  social  opinion,  and  therefore  to  be  tolerated  if 
expressed  indirectly  in  the  form  of  argument,  the  mistake  will  be 
fatal.  The  call  for  volunteers  the  second  time  has  not  met  my  appro 
bation,  nor  the  effort  to  draw  the  bounty  from  subscriptions.  The 
excuse  made  for  Governor  Curtin,  that  there  would  be  a  factious 
opposition  to  bounties  on  the  eve  of  the  next  election,  does  not  meet 
the  case.  There  should  in  my  mind  have  been  an  immediate  resort 
to  the  draft,  and  a  great  effort  to  sustain  it  by  public  meetings,  with 

357 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  82 

subscriptions  to  aid  the  supply  of  substitutes  for  such  as  would  have 
been  unable  to  find  them  with  their  own  funds,  and  yet  were  so  essen 
tial  to  family  dependents  as  to  make  their  departure  on  service  ruin 
ous.  This  would  have  been  my  plan, — law  for  the  enrolment  and 
draft,  subscriptions  for  relief  from  severe  exceptional  pressure  by 
the  lot.  We  must  come  to  this,  as  the  enemy  use  it  with  the  utmost 
rigour,  and  if  the  attempt  should  be  made  to  break  down  the  law, 
ordinary  firmness  and  the  law  will  break  down  those  who  make  the 
attempt. 

We  want  the  government  at  Washington  to  let  the  people  know 
and  feel  that  neither  the  defence  against  the  rebels  nor  the  mode  of 
making  it  as  the  law  authorizes  it  to  be  made  shall  be  made  the  subject 
of  action  by  traitorous  citizens,  as  if  it  were  peace  and  not  war  that 
was  the  issue.  I  am  not  going  myself  to  become  an  abolitionist,  which 
I  never  have  been ;  but  if  within  the  Act  of  Congress  the  government 
shall  use  slaves  for  military  labour,  and  freedom  is  the  result,  I  shall 
not  complain  of  it.  The  negroes  are  a  part  of  the  force  of  our  enemy. 
I  would  dare,  as  freely  as  the  Act  of  Congress  permits,  to  use  that 
force  against  the  enemy,  and  so  I  suppose  General  Halleck  means 
to  do.  We  shall  be  whipped  as  sure  as  fate,  if  we  fight  with  one  of 
our  hands  tied  behind  our  backs  and  the  other  one  with  a  buff  or 
boxer's  glove  on,  while  the  enemy  uses  both  hands  and  feet  of  all 
colours,  and  our  fellow-citizens  at  our  homesides  are  *  permitted  to 
discourage  our  people  from  doing  what  the  law  requires.  Let  us  not 
only  be  men  ourselves,  but  require  our  neighbours  to  hold  their  traitor 
ous  lips  in  silence ;  and  if  when  drafted  they  refuse  or  desert,  to  treat 
them  with  the  length  of  the  law,  and  the  strength  of  the  military  arm 
to  enforce  it.  This  I  hope  will  overrule  the  crisis ;  and  though  I  have 
not  the  least  authority  to  say  anything  on  this  head,  I  believe  the 
people  will  support  the  government  against  any  party. 

Dr.  Lieber  had  two  sons  in  the  Northern  army,  one  of 
whom  had  already  lost  an  arm  in  battle,  but  his  oldest  son 
had  remained  in  the  South  when  the  family  removed  to  New 
York  some  years  before  the  war,  and  had  ultimately  espoused 

358 


1862]  THE    CIVIL   WAR 

the  Southern  cause.  At  one  time  Dr.  Lieber  had  heard  that 
he  was  wounded,  possibly  a  prisoner,  and  Mr.  Binney  had 
an  inquiry  made  among  the  prisoners  in  Philadelphia. 
Finally  it  was  known  that  the  young  man  had  fallen,  and  to 
this  the  next  letter  relates. 

(To  Dr.  Lieber.) 

PHILADA.,  5  Aug.,  1862. 

You  and  your  wife  have  my  perfect  sympathy  in  the  suffering 
that  has  come  to  you  from  the  event  in  Richmond.  I  feared  it  was 
foreshadowed  by  the  considerable  interval  that  had  elapsed  since  your 
preceding  letter. 

I  do  not  mean  to  examine  or  to  question  the  special  ground 
of  regret  which  you  intimate,  in  the  occurrence  of  such  a  loss  while 
in  the  Confederate  service;  but  there  are  considerations  which  must 
not  be  overlooked  while  we  are  regarding  it  in  the  personal  or  family 
relation.  His  connection  with  that  service  may  have  been  involuntary 
in  the  personal,  and  even  in  the  moral  sense.  He  may  have  acted 
under  a  generous  impulse  of  gratitude  for  public  benefits  conferred. 
He  may  have  sincerely  entertained  the  belief,  which  so  many  in  the 
same  quarter  have  publicly  declared,  that  the  object  of  the  North  was 
to  place  the  slaves  above  their  masters,  and  to  tear  up  the  social  con 
ditions  of  the  South  by  the  roots.  With  such  a  conviction,  who  would 
have  thrown  at  him  at  all,  let  alone  the  first  stone?  In  such  a  broad 
and  deep  division  of  the  nation  as  this  is,  with  ten  thousand  times 
ten  thousand  voices  at  the  South  uttering  the  same  conviction,  many 
of  them  no  doubt  falsely  and  hypocritically,  but  many  of  them  in  a 
good  heart,  it  is  impossible  to  adjudge  the  personal  condition  of  a 
man  by  his  outward  public  acts.  They  may  have  been  a  demonstra 
tion  of  the  highest  personal  virtue,  such  as  all  men  should  love,  and 
not  that  dark  offence  which,  in  the  general  public  relation,  the  law 
denominates  it.  Derwentwater,  in  the  '15,  almost  makes  one  in  love 
with  treason.  The  truth  is,  that  treason  or  rebellion,  though  the 
highest  offence  in  the  law,  and  sometimes  in  the  personal  relation  the 

359 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Ex.  82 

basest,  has  no  necessary  baseness  personally.  The  provision  of  the 
common  law  which  attaints  the  blood,  and  despoils  the  traitor's  chil 
dren  of  their  bread,  does  it  upon  the  principle  that  the  love  of  wife 
and  children  may  deter  him  from  the  treason.  The  penalty  is  ad 
dressed  to  the  noble  affections,  which  the  law  supposes  will  be  in  con 
flict  with  the  temptation.  The  legal  and  political  judgment  alone  is 
applied  to  the  offence;  and  the  personal  wrong  can  be  pronounced 
only  by  the  moral  judgment,  which  can  hardly  ever  pronounce  it  with 
safety,  except  in  an  abstract  way,  and  which  no  father  and  mother 
should  distress  themselves  by  applying,  or  by  supposing  that  any 
man  of  right  mind  will  think  of  applying  to  an  otherwise  worthy 
man.  He  has  died  in  what  he  believed  was  the  performance  of  his 
duty.  Our  Saviour  went  further  than  all  this,  not  to  exculpate  wrong, 
but  to  discountenance  personal  judgment  even  in  a  flagrant  case. 

I  have  been  much  struck  by  the  pointed  and  decisive  answer  the 
North  is  now  giving  to  the  pretence  of  the  ambitious  bad  men  of  the 
South,  who  have  poisoned  their  country  with  the  belief  that  the  North 
meant  to  uproot  the  institution  of  slavery,  and  therefore  that  it  was 
impossible  to  avoid  making  war  against  us.  The  absence  of  any  such 
Northern  feeling  generally,  or  even  to  a  dangerous  extent,  is  now  the 
cause  of  our  most  dangerous  and  weakening  divisions.  Even  in  the 
midst  of  a  war  which  is  entirely  defensive,  and  in  the  presence  of  immi 
nent  danger,  it  is  the  great  impediment  to  the  use  of  even  military 
power  to  weaken  the  South  by  interfering  in  any  way  with  their  slaves. 

God  knows  I  disapprove  of  the  institution  of  slavery  every  way, 
— for  its  effect  upon  the  slaves,  still  more  for  its  effect  upon  the 
masters,  most  of  all  for  its  incompatibility,  growing  and  incurable 
incompatibility,  with  such  a  government,  black  slavery  pre-eminently. 
Happy  Czar !  It  would  be  a  heavenly  boon  for  us  to  exchange  black 
for  white,  two  for  one,  or  one  for  two,  just  as  he  pleased. 

I  do  not  wish  to  be  quoted  to  the  President,  or  any  of  the  De 
partments,  or  to  anybody;  but  while  I  am  not  and  never  have  been 
an  abolitionist,  in  the  imputed  sense,  I  have  no  idea  of  protecting  the 
slaves  of  the  South  in  such  a  war,  or  of  letting  them  interfere  with 
the  full  use  of  our  military  means,  with  them  or  against  them,  to 

360 


1862]  THE    CIVIL    WAR 

subdue  the  enemy.  Unless  this  result  is  reached  and  the  slaves  are 
made  to  be  adstricti  to  their  own  States,  I  do  not  see  how  we  are  to  live 
hereafter,  either  united  or  divided. 

(To  J.  C.  Hamilton,  Esq.) 

PHLLADA.,  8  Oct.,  1862. 

Your  kind  solicitude  for  some  of  my  descendants,  who  are  and 
have  been  a  small  part  of  this  war,  is  very  interesting  to  me.  It  is  not 
wise,  however,  to  cultivate  in  such  times  as  these  that  tenderness  of 
heart  which  feeds  the  interest  for  those  who  are  in  daily  peril.  We 
must  trust  them  to  the  Higher  Power,  whether  we  will  or  no.  We  can 
do  nothing  for  them  ourselves,  unless  it  be  to  pray  for  them;  and 
after  that,  the  best  course  for  ourselves  is  to  take  a  step  of  a  century 
or  more  in  advance  of  the  day,  and  look  back  upon  our  children  and 
ourselves  in  the  post  futurum  light.  It  will  be  better  for  them  and 
for  us  that  they  fell  in  defence  of  their  country,  their  country  being 
so  indisputably  right,  than  to  have  lived  to  old  age  in  what  is  called 
ease  and  comfort,  and  then  to  have  gone  into  an  oblivious  grave,  with 
the  burden  of  ten  thousand  forgotten  duties,  which  ease  and  comfort 
pass  over  unregarded.  Everybody,  perhaps,  will  say  this  for  another, 
though  so  few  say  it  for  themselves ;  but  depend  upon  its  truth,  for 
it  is  the  word  of  God,  which  both  the  Bible  and  all  profane  history 
teach.  Sursum  cor  da,  therefore.  I  will  not  grieve  over  any  one  of 
my  line  who  suffers  or  falls  in  performance  of  his  duty.  My  regret 
is  that  there  is  not  some  way  in  which  I  can  give  anything  more  than 
the  dead  weight  of  old  age  to  the  cause,  which,  however,  and  upon 
what  plans  soever  it  may  be  conducted,  is  the  noblest  that  can  engage 
the  heart  of  man.  I  have  to  use  this  language,  for  the  plans  which 
have  been  adopted  in  the  application  in  our  immense  force  and  re 
sources  I  have  sometimes  disapproved  when  I  thought  I  understood 
them,  and  much  more  frequently  I  have  not  understood  them  when 
our  rulers  have  explained  them.  I  go  for  the  support  of  the  govern 
ment,  as  per  se  my  duty,  until  mere  obstruction  shall  be  obviously 
better  than  what  government  is  proposing  to  do ;  and  that  condition 
is  not  likely  to  occur.  I  say  this  in  special  reference  to  the  President's 

361 


HORACE    BINNEY  [2&T.  82 

Emancipation  Proclamation,  which  is  now  the  uppermost  thing  in  the 
country.  I  do  not  understand  the  law  of  it.  And  do  not  believe  that 
there  is  any  law  for  it,  unless  it  be  the  law  of  force  in  war ;  and  if  it 
relies  on  that  (which  the  Proclamation  does  not  say,  as  I  read  it)  it 
would,  I  think,  have  been  much  less  disturbing  to  the  country,  and 
even  more  effectual,  to  have  said  it  by  way  of  conclusion  than  of 
premises.  I  shall  be  most  agreeably  disappointed  if  it  does  not  in 
Pennsylvania  bring  up  the  Democrats  into  the  position  of  a  majority; 
and  how  much  that  may  prejudice  us  no  one  can  say.  Nevertheless,  I 
utter  no  word  against  the  Proclamation,  unless  it  is  against  it  to  say, 
as  I  do  to  some  of  my  friends,  that  I  regard  it  as  an  accommodation 
bill,  which  will  pass  only  among  friends,  and  may  be  withdrawn  at 
maturity  if  funds  are  not  provided.  I  still  think  the  President  is 
sincere  and  honest ;  but  does  the  confidence  of  even  his  friends  increase 
in  his  general  competency?  O  for  that  woman  of  Endor,  to  call  up 
some,  or  at  least  one,  of  the  dead !  And  yet,  better  is  it  not  to  hear 
Samuel  again,  than  to  hear  what  Samuel  said.  .  .  . 

(To  Sir  J.  T.  Coleridge.) 

PHILADELPHIA,  11  Nov.,  1862. 

It  is  very  kind  in  you,  my  dear  sir,  to  give  me  another  of  your 
excellent  and  comforting  letters,  when  I  have  not  as  yet  acknowledged 
a  previous  one  of  the  13th  August.  It  is  no  doubt  because  you  keep 
no  account  of  kindness  to  your  friends,  and  especially  to  one  who, 
from  the  condition  of  his  country  at  this  time,  and  for  two  years  past, 
may  be  called  a  sufferer.  I  so  understand  it,  and  appreciate  it,  and 
am  very  grateful  for  it.  ... 

You  say  truly,  my  dear  sir,  that  I  feel  the  condition  of  things 
here  the  more  for  having  so  long  witnessed,  on  the  same  spot,  a  state 
of  general  quiet  and  prosperity;  and  the  change  affects  me  with  the 
more  poignancy,  because  I  have  to  give  up  my  oldest  grandson,  and 
others  of  my  family,  to  service  in  a  most  sanguinary  and  desolating 
war.  I  should,  indeed,  be  entirely  without  consolation  if  I  did  not 
habitually  look  up  to  the  great  Being  who  has  been  so  merciful  to  me 
all  my  life,  and  who  I  believe  will  overrule  all  the  actions  of  men  to 

362 


1862]  THE    CIVIL    WAR 

the  final  triumph  of  virtue,  and  did  not  at  the  same  time  believe  in 
my  conscience,  that  this  defensive  war  on  the  part  of  the  North  and 
West  is  perfectly  just,  was  entirely  inevitable,  and  cannot  be  termi 
nated  without  submission  by  the  South,  or  ruin  to  the  country  of 
which  I  am  a  citizen.  It  is  this  belief  that  sustains  me,  and  sustains 
thousands  of  reflecting  and  good  men  by  the  side  of  me,  all,  never 
theless,  feeling  the  same  anguish,  that  so  many  in  Europe  say  they 
feel,  at  this  terrible  war. 

I  know  what  they  say  in  England  and  elsewhere,  that  the  South 
cannot  be  made  to  submit,  and  therefore  that  we  ought  to  make  peace, 
that  is,  to  agree  to  their  secession  and  separation  as  they  require,  and 
to  cease  the  shedding  of  blood.  But  I  do  not  hold  to  this  opinion  that 
the  South  cannot  be  made  to  submit.  It  is  far  from  being  certain, 
or,  I  think,  probable.  But  I  hold  with  entire  conviction  to  another 
opinion,  that  unless  the  South  is  made  to  submit,  and  whether  the 
separation  be  voluntary  or  otherwise  on  our  part,  we  are  an  undone 
nation,  and  shall  have  at  our  side  a  power  that  will  rule  us  in  peace 
or  in  war,  to  the  ends  of  negro  slavery ;  and  I  call  this  being  undone. 
I  think  you  would  all  agree  to  it  in  Europe  if  you  would  forget  the 
advantages  of  commercial  intercourse  with  the  South,  and  knew  both 
that  part  of  the  country  and  the  whole  of  it  as  well  as  we  do.  I  do 
not  mean  to  say  that  we  shall  certainly  compel  the  South  to  submit. 
Their  strength  or  passions  may  prevent  it,  or  we  may  become  divided 
in  the  North  and  West,  as  there  is  some  ground  to  fear.  I  cannot 
answer  for  what  the  Democracy  may  do.  They  have  brought  in 
Texas ;  they  made  the  war  against  Mexico  to  acquire  slave  territory ; 
they  united  with  the  South,  and  would  unite  again  if  they  could, 
under  that  false  name,  to  get  place  and  power  at  home  in  exchange 
for  slave  rule  over  the  whole.  I  cannot  answer  for  this,  but  I  regard 
this  as  ruin  for  my  posterity  and  nation,  and  therefore  I  make  the 
choice  of  conscientiously  contending,  in  this  defensive  war,  against 
the  slave  power.  My  conscience,  my  dear  sir,  shall  not  undo  me, 
although  I  may  be  undone  by  the  South,  in  connection  with  my  own 
blinded  or  corrupt  fellow-citizens. 

But  I  am  ashamed  to  have  said  so  much  to  you,  my  dear  sir, 

363 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  82 

and  so  much  especially  without  giving  my  reasons.  But  this  cannot 
be  done  in  a  letter. 

I  don't  mind  what  Mr.  Gladstone  said.  Great  parliamentarian 
as  he  is,  he  has  got  to  like  the  fanning  of  the  aura  popularis  upon  his 
brow.  I  don't  mind  what  politicians  say  anywhere.  It  is  a  calculating 
and  rather  venal  body.  I  do  from  my  heart  admire  and  respect  a 
great  body  of  good  men  in  England,  who,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  appear 
to  feel  a  sympathy  with  the  South  in  this  contest;  and  this  grieves 
me  deeply.  I  cannot  understand  it,  nor  am  I  able  to  distinguish  it 
from  a  sympathy  with  the  slave-trade.  It  is  the  slave-trade  in  the 
very  worst  form,  and  it  is  the  predominancy  of  slave  masters  over 
freemen  and  freedom  that  are  now  in  question,  and  have  made  this 
war.  And  they  will  continue  it  and  renew  it  until  they  overcome  all 
freedom  in  their  neighbourhood  or  are  overcome  by  it.  Therefore  I 
submit,  and  cheerfully,  to  whatever  sacrifices  this  great  defence  of 
our  freedom  and  virtue  may  call  me  to. 

I  wish  I  had  some  news  to  tell  you.  I  hardly  open  a  newspaper, 
but  they  have  everything,  and  more.  General  McClellan's  recent  re 
moval  from  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  makes  much  remark 
and  some  discontent.  In  nine  days  it  may  be  less  exciting.  He  is 
an  accomplished  officer,  and  has  been  successful  in  training  the  army, 
not  enterprising  in  fighting  it.  There  has  been  a  party  against  him 
for  long.  Finally  he  has  been  relieved,  as  it  is  called.  But  his  army 
is  really  at  this  time  in  the  face  of  the  rebel  army,  and  this  adds  to 
the  dissatisfaction  from  his  removal.  We  require  all  our  fortitude  and 
all  our  energy  and  all  our  devotion.  I  do  not,  to  answer  one  of  your 
remarks,  see  at  present  much  change  in  our  people.  Overweening 
enough,  and  vainglorious  are  some  of  us.  We  have  no  reason  to 
believe,  if  this  war  is  a  dispensation  for  the  punishment  or  cure  of 
sin,  that  we  have  not  many  of  our  own  to  answer  for. 

I  beg  my  regards  to  your  son.  I  have  read  his  speech  at  Exeter, 
— a  very  pleasing  photograph  of  him  certainly.  We  do  not,  I  think, 
mean  the  same  thing  at  all,  by  democracy.  So  far  from  it,  that  I 
wish  him  success  in  his  canvass,  tho'  since  I  have  known  Democracy  in 
Pennsylvania  I  certainly  have  never  wished  political  success  to  any 

member  of  it. 

364 


1862]  THE    CIVIL    WAR 

(To  Dr.  Lieber.) 

PHILADA.,  4  Dec.,  1862. 

I  have  received  Mr.  Livermore's  Memoir,6  and  have  read  it 
with  great  pleasure.  No  person  of  my  age  required  a  document  of 
this  nature  to  assure  him  that  the  positions  of  Jefferson  Davis  in  his 
first  message,  in  regard  to  the  change  of  opinion  on  the  question  of 
slavery  at  the  North,  and  as  to  the  sale  of  their  slaves  to  the  South, 
were  false  and  covinous,  as  the  old  law-books  say.  I  have  travelled 
alongside  of  the  muse  of  this  history  for  more  than  sixty  years,  and 
all  is  written  in  my  memory  as  Mr.  Livermore  records.  He  says  little 
of  Pennsylvania;  but  the  Abolition  Act  of  1780  of  that  State  pro 
hibits  expressly  and  punishes  that  thing  which  Davis  charges  upon 
them  as  the  venality  of  their  conversion  from  the  love  of  slavery  to 
the  abolition  of  it.  Nothing  was  ever  more  false  than  Davis's  crimina 
tion  of  the  North  in  this  respect.  I  speak,  of  course,  of  the 
ruling  and  predominant  sentiment  of  what  are  now  called  the  free 
States.  .  .  . 

I  should  like  to  know  what  you  think  of  the  President's  message. 
It  is,  I  think,  like  his  other  messages,  honest,  sincere,  and  frank ;  and 
some  of  its  short  logic  is  good  enough,  but  he  does  not  excel,  I  think, 
in  long  logic,  and  I  remain  quite  at  a  loss  to  reconcile  his  proclama 
tion  with  his  projet  of  emancipation,  except  by  supposing  that  the 
emancipation  shall  apply  only  to  those  slave  States  which  shall  be 
represented  in  Congress  on  the  1st  Jany.,  and  to  whom  the  proclama 
tion  seems  to  promise  that  they  shall  keep  their  slaves  in  slavery  as 
they  now  are !  I  shall  be  glad,  however,  if  he  gets  through  the  matter 
in  any  way,  zigzag  or  otherwise.  There  is,  I  fear,  no  straight  line 
of  passage  through  it  but  force,  if  this  people  would  consent  to  it. 

What  I  fear,  and  deeply,  is  that  Democracy  and  Constitutional- 
Unionism  will  patch  up  a  status  ante  bellum  that  will  skim  over  the 
ulcer,  to  break  out  at  a  future  day,  and  to  leave  all  the  lost  arms  and 


•  On  the  Opinions  of  the  Founders  of  the  Republic  upon  negroes  as  slaves, 
as  citizens,  and  as  soldiers,  a  paper  read  before  the  Massachusetts  Historical 
Society. 

365 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  83 

legs  and  lives  of  the  war  without  recompense,  and  almost  without  a 
grateful  remembrance  by  the  country.  If  party  shall  bring  this 
about,  it  never  did  a  more  accursed  thing.  I  had  rather  fight  my 
remaining  ways,  and  give  my  skin  for  a  drum-head  to  keep  up  the 
fight  afterwards,  than  agree  to  such  a  base  and  ignominious  conclu 
sion  as  this.  And  yet,  is  it  not  in  preparation? 

If  this  Mexican  war  by  Napoleon,  in  connection  with  his  plan 
of  mediation, — which  two,  it  strikes  me,  are  one, — shall  unsettle  that 
cordial  entente  of  France  and  England,  as  perhaps  there  are  some 
prospects,  the  scene  may  change  in  the  course  of  the  winter.  At 
present  the  clouds  are  heavy,  and  my  poor  eyes  almost  give  up  the 
effort  to  see  through  them. 

Halleck's  report  is  a  very  interesting  one ;  it  seems  to  fore 
shadow  two  charges  against  McfClellan], — that  he  was  determined 
to  throw  his  failure  at  Richmond  upon  the  administration,  and  to 
disappoint  them  of  victory  afterwards  by  delay,  delay  at  the  begin 
ning  and  delay  at  the  end.  His  neglecting  altogether  to  inform  his 
general-in-chief  of  what  he  was  about,  or  not  about,  at  Sharpsburg 
was  next  of  kin  to  mutiny. 

(To  the  same.} 

PHILADA.,  17  Jan.,  1863. 

I  hope,  and  I  think,  that  the  invention  of  certain  Democrats, 
to  exclude  New  England  from  a  new  Union,  is  a  very  weak  one.  The 
project  I  suppose  to  have  been  suggested  by  some  men  who  belonged 
to  the  Breckenridge  wing,  and  who  are  longing  to  get  back  to  that 
condition  in  which  the  South  took  the  ambitious  lead  under  false 
colours,  and  left  to  the  North  the  base  spoils  of  office,  where  subordi 
nate  offices  most  abounded.  But  I  do  not  believe  that  the  mass  of  even 
the  Democrats  by  name  can  be  seduced  in  this  way,  and  I  am  sure  that 
the  body  and  heart  of  the  country  are  not  to  be  seduced  to  Southern 
r€-alliance  in  politics.  The  basis  of  such  re-alliance  must  be  slavery 
and  connivance  with  slavery;  and  that  I  hold  to  be  impossible  to 
North  and  West. 

For  many  years  I  have  given  up  a  former  opinion,  that  the 

366 


1863]  THE    CIVIL    WAR 

New  England  men  were  bigotedly  devoted  to  a  tariff.  I  gave  it  up 
after  full  conversation  with  men  of  the  best  intelligence  and  most 
extended  personal  concern  in  manufactures,  from  whom  I  learned  that 
as  a  body  the  cotton  manufacturers  were  indifferent  to  it,  some  of 
them,  my  own  friends,  averse  to  it,  or,  rather,  jealous  of  it.  They 
feel  themselves  to  be  quite  independent  of  it,  self-reliant  in  both 
capital  and  skill.  The  passion  for  tariff  is  a  Middle  State  rather 
than  an  Eastern  devotion.  It  is  the  iron  manufacture  that  is  the  seat 
or  centre  of  the  excitement  in  favour  of  tariff  prohibitions  or  duties. 
The  proprietors  of  this  really  precarious  interest  are  those  who  stimu 
late  the  mass  and  bring  all  the  troops  they  can  muster, — New  England 
men  for  their  cotton  and  machine  factories,  the  Western  and  Middle 
men  for  their  wool,  and  everybody  for  his  own  special  concern,  to 
unite  whenever  there  is  to  be  a  fight.  Yet  with  all  their  show  they 
are  indebted,  for  any  success  they  obtain,  to  accident,  and  not  to  their 
own  strength.  The  New  England  people  know  this  as  well  as  any 
people ;  and  they  are  a  people  who  never  give  their  hearts  to  anything 
they  cannot  perdurably  make  their  own.  Pennsylvania  is  more  likely 
to  run  crazy  after  iron  than  New  England  to  run  after  anything  that 
cannot  with  great  certainty  be  had  for  the  running.  And  yet  poor 
Pennsylvania,  great  as  she  is  in  population  and  wealth,  can  she^ever 
be  anything  but  a  make-weight?  .  .  . 

Perhaps  I  don't  exactly  agree  with  you  in  supposing  that  a 
pamphlet  setting  forth  New  England's  excellencies  is  very  necessary, 
or  very  expedient  at  the  present  moment.  Not  very  expedient,  because 
the  jealousy  of  her  and  the  purpose  against  her  are  not  sufficiently 
declared ;  and  it  is  not  discreet  to  proclaim  your  defences  while  your 
enemy  holds  back  the  nature  and  object  of  his  attack  or  accusation. 
It  is  not  necessary,  perhaps,  at  any  time.  St.  Paul  tells  the  Corin 
thians,  "  Ye  are  our  epistle  written  in  our  heart,  known  and  read  of  all 
men."  The  New  England  men  are  their  own  pamphlet,  read  every 
where  in  the  land,  in  their  everywhere  present  characteristics.  Nothing 
can  be  said  of  them,  good  or  bad,  that  is  not  universaUy  known.  They 
are  everywhere,  and  have  a  hand  in  everything,  and  are  the  best  hand 
in  good  things,  and  perhaps  the  best  in  some  that  are  very  bad— best 

367 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^T.  83 


in  a  bad  way,  —  slave  overseers,  for  instance  ;  but  the  best  universally 
for  practical  administration  to  make  the  most  of  small  things  and 
to  secure  what  is  their  own,  though  not  the  best  to  devise  at  first  the 
greatest  things.  If  New  England  shall  not  form  a  part  of  any  nation 
that  may  exist  on  this  continent,  it  will  be  because  she  does  not  want 
to,  because  she  does  not  think  it  worth  while,  because  she  believes  it 
won't  pay.  To  exclude  her  against  her  will  would  be  as  impossible  as 
to  dam  in  the  Amazon  or  Mississippi.  I  wish  I  were  as  sure  that  my 
own  State  will  be  in  the  place  she  wants  to  be  as  that  all  the  States 
of  New  England  will  be. 

I  will,  however,  give  my  voice  for  your  writing  the  pamphlet, 
and  I  promise  myself  beforehand  more  pleasure  from  reading  it  than 
if  it  should  come  from  any  other  pen.  It  would  be  more  generally 
read,  moreover,  and  be  more  generally  assented  to,  than  from  any 
other  quarter.  I  hope  at  the  same  time,  if  you  do  write  it,  you  will 
not  say,  for  you  cannot  think,  that  this  opposition  to  the  Southern 
defiance  of  all  compromises,  and  Southern  idolatry  of  State  rights  to 
annihilate  the  Union  and  to  absorb  the  national  authority,  originated 
in  New  England  or  in  either  of  its  States.  The  crystallization  may 
have  first  begun  there,  and  perhaps  in  Massachusetts,  because  an  old 
collision  between  that  State  and  South  Carolina  made  the  Bay  State 
less  able  to  hold  in  solution  the  new  matter  which  Southern  imperious- 
ness  had  generated.  The  first  deposit  may  have  been  there.  But  my 
clear  impression  is  that  the  whole  North,  Middle  and  Western,  were 
supersaturated  before  there  was  a  deposit  anywhere,  and  the  super- 
saturation  was  in  that  part  of  the  people  that  was  freest  from  party 
leading,  and  freest  from  ignoble  accommodation  to  false,  unconstitu 
tional,  and  immoral  pretensions. 

I  verily  believe  —  I  beg  you,  if  you  care  to  remember  what  I 
say,  that  you  will  remember  my  faith  in  this  matter  —  that  the  real 
cause  of  this  rebellion,  the  spring  of  it  to  the  South,  the  spring  of 
resistance  to  it  at  the  North  and  West  and  everywhere,  was  in  the 
Dred  Scott  decision  ;  that  the  author,  fons  et  principium,  of  the  out 
break  is  Roger  B.  Taney,  neither  more  nor  less.  It  was  he  who  first 
helped  the  South  to  the  appearance  and  similitude  of  legal  authority, 

368 


1863]  THE    CIVIL    WAR 

in  asserting  that  right  to  carry  their  slaves  into  every  territory,  what 
ever  the  majority  of  all  the  nation,  or  its  executive  and  judicial  de 
partments,  might  say ;  and  it  was  he  who  first  told  all  the  rest  of  the 
States  that  common  sense  and  long-sanctioned  interpretation  of  plain 
language  were  as  nothing  against  the  interests  of  slavery.  The  whole 
mass  of  the  thinking  people  of  the  nation  started  at  that  ominous 
sound,  New  England  not  more  than  all  other  freemen  who  were  in 
their  senses.  And  from  this  has  sprung  all  the  rest, — we  of  the  North 
and  West  to  follow  out  in  opposition  every  act  from  the  South  that 
proclaimed  a  determination  to  have  a  Constitution  such  as  the  Dred 
Scott  decision  had  attempted  to  make  our  own.  The  Confederate 
Constitution  is,  in  fact,  only  the  Federal  Constitution  with  the  Dred 
Scott  decision  added  to  it  by  new  specific  clauses. 

Are  we  to  shrink,  or  to  fold  ourselves  in  despondency,  in  a 
contest  so  beginning,  because  we  do  not  succeed  at  once?  Heaven 
forbid !  This  success  at  once,  the  weak  hope  or  wish  of  our  people, 
perhaps  of  all  people  who  have  their  say  to  such  an  extent,  is  our 
great  danger.  We  have  suffered  immensely  by  it,  and  may — I  must 
admit  the  possibility — we  may  fail  by  it,  but  let  us  see  what  will  be 
the  fate  of  an  administration  which  proposes  peace  on  the  basis  of  the 
Dred  Scott  decision.  I  do  not  believe  that  such  a  peace  would  even 
skin  over  the  last  wounds  of  the  war  before  it  was  broken. 

Did  you  see  what  a  member  of  the  House  from  the  West  said 
on  the  subj  ect  of  the  war  ?  It  was  said  with  the  air  of  great  decision. 
"  If  you  can  secure  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  in  this  war,  you  will  con 
quer.  If  you  cannot,  separation  is  inevitable." 

But  what  a  strolling  actor  I  am,  in  rambling  all  these  inco 
herences  in  return  for  your  sensible,  though  desponding,  letter ! 


24  369 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^ET.  83 


XIV 

THE   CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD  (CONTINUED)— THIRD   HABEAS 
CORPUS    PAMPHLET 

1863-1865 

THE  Union  League  of  Philadelphia,  which  had  been 
formed  for  the  social  intercourse  of  loyal  men,  and 
to  exert  a  collective  influence  in  support  of  the 
Union,  had  planned  to  emphasize  its  work  by  a  grand  ban 
quet  on  the  Fourth  of  July  of  this  year.  Almost  at  the  last 
moment  the  project  had  to  be  abandoned,  as  the  menacing 
advance  of  Lee's  army  summoned  the  members  of  the 
League  to  more  serious  tasks  than  feasting.  A  few  days 
before  this,  however,  on  June  25,  Mr.  Binney,  when  writing 
to  state  that  his  age  and  failing  strength  compelled  his  de 
clining  the  League's  invitation,  took  occasion  to  express  his 
cordial  sympathy  with  its  work.  The  League  was  at  that 
time  a  thoroughly  non-partisan  body,  where  loyal  Democrats 
and  Republicans  were  equally  at  home,  and  this  obliteration 
of  party  lines  was  to  his  mind  the  most  healthy  and  hopeful 
feature  in  the  League's  constitution.  Possibly  he  looked 
forward  to  a  time  when  the  League  might  be  tempted  to 
give  up  its  non-partisan  character,  and  thought  it  well  to 
sound  a  note  of  warning,  as  well  as  of  encouragement.  At 
all  events  he  made  non-partisanship  the  central  thought  of 
his  letter.  Pointing  out  first  that  devotion  to  the  Union  and 
support  of  the  government  ordained  by  the  Constitution 

370 


1863]  PARTY    SPIRIT 

were  the  spirit  of  Washington's  Farewell  Address,  he  went 
on  to  say, — 

If  there  be  any  practical  distinction  between  the  government 
and  the  administration,  party  has  made  it,  and  not  Washington ;  and 
it  is  a  distinction  disloyal  to  the  Union,  the  Constitution,  and  the 
government.  It  reduces  loyalty  to  the  degraded  rank  of  personal 
favour  to  personal  actors  in  the  government,  and  to  party  satisfaction 
with  party  measures  of  government.  The  doctrines  of  Washington 
were  not  party  doctrines.  Washington  belonged  to  no  party,  wrote 
for  no  party,  and  acted  for  no  party.  He  feared  the  evils  of  party 
more  than  all  other  evils  which  could  assail  the  Union.  He  has  de 
scribed,  and  almost  denounced,  the  designs  of  a  party  disloyal  to  the 
Union,  which  he  thought  was  in  sight  in  his  own  day.  This  was  the 
parent  thought  of  his  Farewell  Address.  He  discommended  parties 
altogether,  and  at  all  times,  as  intrinsically  dangerous  to  the  Union 
and  to  republican  government. 

Let  us  be  thankful  that  God  spared  the  eyes  of  this  pure  and 
incorruptible  patriot  from  beholding,  and  perhaps  his  spirit  from 
conceiving,  the  terrible  depth  to  which  this  nation  would  fall  when 
an  immense  and  ruling  mass  of  its  people  would  regard  party  as  a 
political  virtue,  and  the  passionate  exaggerations  of  party  as  the 
only  efficient  instrument  of  government.  He  was  especially  blessed  in 
escaping  the  sight  of  flagrant  and  wide-spreading  rebellion,  raised  up 
by  and  through  the  spirit  of  party,  to  blast  the  best  fruits  of  the 
great  labour  of  his  life,  to  destroy  the  Union,  to  falsify  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence,  and  to  lay  foundations  in  government  which 
all  our  fathers  abhorred.  That  sight  has  been  reserved  for  us,  per 
haps  for  our  unfilial  disregard  of  his  advice,  which  seems  to  have  been 
an  inspiration  of  Heaven. 

The  letter  was  published  as  one  of  the  League's  series, 
of  war  pamphlets,  but  whether  its  sentiments  would  have 
been  equally  well  received  in  more  recent  years  is  perhaps, 
open  to  question. 

371 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  83 

(To  Dr.  Lieber.) 

PHILADA.,  7  July,  1863. 

I  wish  that  circumstances  had  permitted  the  Union  League 
celebration  on  the  4th ;  but  the  moment  that  Lee's  advance  f  oreshewed 
his  coming,  everybody  saw  that  we  must  think  of  something  else. 
Every  one  saw  that  it  was  better  to  throw  away  the  expense  incurred 
than  be  chargeable  with  boasting  and  affectation  abroad,  and  be  said 
to  check  the  outflow  from  other  quarters.  Your  theme  would  have 
developed  very  attractively  to  hearers  of  all  descriptions,  for  you 
have  the  art,  with  the  heart. 

The  rout  and  retreat  of  Lee  are  certain,  and  we  shall,  I  hope, 
hear  more.  But  I  do  not  expect  all  or  half  of  what  the  press  predicts. 
I  hope  it  settles  the  question  of  Northern  invasion.  They  have  no 
such  resources  of  men  or  supplies  at  the  South  as  will  enable  them  to 
come  again  so  far  from  their  base.  We  have  a  strong  and  fresh  army 
from  Pennsylvania,  eighteen  to  twenty  thousand,  pressing  on  the  rebel 
rear — I  wish  it  may  be  the  rebel  rout.  Our  particulars  of  killed  and 
wounded  are  now  to  come  in,  and  will  darkly  overhang  us  for  a  long 
time.  We  do  not  yet  hear  of  our  grandson,  and  the  non-intelligence 
is  thought  to  be  favourable.  .  .  .  How  crushing  is  the  weight  of 
hours  of  suspended  intelligence  after  a  battle  of  two  days !  It  seems 
to  me  that  there  has  been  no  fighting  more  desperate  and  deadly  than 
ours ;  and  so  I  predicted  it  would  be.  ... 

My  dear  Lieber,  I  have  had  nothing  to  do,  in  all  the  agitation 
of  the  past  fortnight,  but  to  hold  on.  That  is  the  best  thing  that 
any  man  can  do  in  such  a  hurricane,  even  if  he  has  nothing  better  to 
hold  by  than  himself.  I  made  a  few  simple  arrangements,  very  quietly, 
to  place  my  wife  in  safety  with  her  friends  on  a  day's  notice,  and  I 
had  nothing  further  to  do  but  watch  and  pray,  which  had  no  tendency 
to  disturb  me  in  the  use  of  my  faculties  for  anything  that  turned  up. 
I  felt  deeply  for  many,  and  had  many  to  think  for,  and  to  assist  in 
doing  or  preparing  for  themselves  what  I  had  done  for  my  wife,  but 
since  this  there  has  been  no  agitation,  nor  any  wasting  of  our  strength 
by  anxiety,  or  by  much  inquiry  to  learn  whether  we  need  be  anxious. 
I  am  gratified  by  your  solicitude  for  me  and  mine.  I  should  count 
upon  it  in  all  similar  conditions. 

372 


1863]  THE    CIVIL    WAR 

(To  the  same.) 

PHILADA.,  11  July,  1863. 

It  is  true,  I  believe,  that  my  last  letter  was  mailed  before  the 
news  from  Vicksburg  was  received;  but  if  the  hurrah,  and  the  bell 
of  the  State  House,  and  the  insurrection  of  flags  had  proclaimed  it 
before,  I  should  hardly  have  stated  more  than  the  fact.  I  never  crow. 
I  never  did  crow.  I  can't  crow,  not  even  inwardly.  I  look  upon  it  as 
a  defect.  I  am  sorry  for  it,  but  I  can't  help  it.  I  sometimes  am  near 
to  it,  I  suppose,  when  I  have  hit  upon  what  I  think  is  a  logical  demon 
stration,  and  the  next  thing  I  expect  that  my  wings  will  collapse,  and 
my  tail  drop,  upon  finding  that  it  is  no  demonstration  at  all.  So 
with  Vicksburg;  so  with  Gettysburg;  so  with  any  burg;  something 
yet  remains,  and  will  remain,  to  keep  me  from  crowing;  and  when 
all  the  cocks  in  creation  shall  have  cracked  their  throats,  mine  will  be 
as  good,  and  as  good  for  nothing,  as  it  was  before.  If  you  will  only 
tell  me  how  this  nation,  government,  people,  will  come  to  settle  down 
in  anything  that  will  have  a  fair  chance  of  lasting  respectably  for 
fifty  years,  then,  if  there  is  any  crow  in  me,  you  shall  have  the  whole 
of  it,  with  a  will.  But  there  is  so  much  misery  in  every  victory  that 
we  have  had,  and  that  we  can  have,  in  this  civil  war, — the  incarnation 
of  evil  spirits, — that  while  I  say  to  my  Union  friends,  "  Go  on,  spare 
not ;  when  one  falls  let  two  take  his  place ;  there  can  be  no  good  end 
to  it  but  victory  or  death,"  yet  I  regard  all  this  as  mere  conformity 
to  duty,  being  utterly  unable  to  see  that  even  complete  victory  will 
bring  us  anything  that  will  be  worth  having.  If  I  had  not  a  firm 
trust  in  God,  I  know  not  what  I  should  be  or  do. 

We  hear  nothing  of  my  oldest  grandson,  who  is  aide  to  Neale 
of  the  Sixth  Corps,  but  hearing  nothing  is  good  negative  evidence  of 
his  safety.  My  second  grandson  is  with  his  battery  at  Carlisle.  My 
third  left  with  his  regiment  (Second  Union  League)  last  night  at 
twelve.  And  to  all  this  I  don't  say  nay,  but  cheer  them  on,  and  tell 
them,  as  I  really  feel,  that  to  them  these  days  of  duty,  however  sharp, 
and  howsoever  ending,  if  they  be  ended  in  that  service,  will  be  worth 
a  thousand  days  of  ease  and  pleasure  at  home. 

Meade  has  been  doing  admirably.  I  have  known  him  long, 

373 


HORACE    BINNEY  MT.  83 


though  slightly,  as  old  seniors  know  young  juniors.  He  has  always 
had  a  pure  character,  and  has  been  in  the  Engineer  Corps  since  he 
left  West  Point.  I  knew  his  father  well,  and  his  mother  well,  and  his 
grandfather,  an  Irish  merchant  in  this  city  from  before  the  Revolu 
tion.  Mother  and  father  were  natives  of  Philadelphia,  both  of  them 
of  high  spirit:  the  father  a  gentleman,  the  mother  a  lady  and  very 
beautiful.  General  Meade  married  the  oldest  daughter  of  John  Ser 
geant.  I  was  at  the  wedding,  and  handed  Mrs.  Meade,  certainly  even 
then  the  most  beautiful  person  in  the  wedding-party,  to  the  supper- 
table.  All  this  makes  the  general  come  near  to  me,  though  I  have 
for  twenty  years  seen  and  heard  little  of  him.  From  hearing  so  little, 
I  did  not  expect  all  that  he  has  performed;  but  I  hear  that  all  the 
commanders  of  corps  but  one  (which,  I  don't  know)  preferred  him  to 
Hooker.  I  wish  him  unbounded  success.  .  .  . 

Do  you  hear  from  your  sons?    Let  me  know. 

(To  Sir  J.  T.  Coleridge.) 

PHILADELPHIA,  10  Nov.,  1863. 

I  find  by  a  memorandum  on  your  last  letter  of  23  Oct.,  1862, 
that  the  date  of  my  last  was  the  llth  November.  Of  course  I  am 
just  in  time  to  make  a  continued  claim  to  the  kindness  which  your 
letters  have  always  manifested,  and  which  the  lapse  of  another  day 
might  have  barred.  My  title  was  at  all  times  so  imperfect  that  nothing 
but  actual  enjoyment  gave  me  anything  to  stand  upon;  and  I  am 
very  desirous  of  not  risking  that  by  omitting  to  interpose  a  claim. 

But  I  have  very  little  to  say  further.  .  .  .  You  know  what  I 
thought  as  to  the  prime  necessity  that  was  upon  us,  to  resist  the  South 
by  arms  to  the  end.  I  thought  there  was  nothing  else  left  to  us,  in 
point  of  honour,  or  in  point  of  national  existence.  I  think  so  still. 
This  nation,  as  it  has  been  made,  and  as  it  exists  geographically,  and 
in  the  relation  of  its  great  divisions,  does  not  admit  of  division  in  any 
way  to  quiet  this  contest.  There  are  large  portions  of  the  slave- 
holding  South  that  are  of  this  opinion.  We  must  perish,  that  is  to 
say,  break  into  several  insignificant,  discontented,  and  angry  parts, 
or  we  must  come  together  again  as  one  nation,  even  if  it  be  only  to 

374 


1863]  THE    CIVIL    WAR 

divide  in  a  better  way.  A  division  between  free  States  and  slave 
States  can  only  be  the  root  of  renewed  war  after  an  insincere  peace, 
or  rather  a  war-preparing  truce.  I  hold  to  this  opinion  after  as  great 
an  effort  as  any  man  could  make  to  form  a  right  opinion.  And  it  is 
some  confirmation  of  it,  that  up  to  this  day  no  man,  North  or  South, 
has,  in  point  of  fact,  suggested  any  adjustment  that  had  the  sem 
blance  of  real  peace,  or  probable  durability.  This  is  no  doubt  the 
sharpest  feature  in  the  case.  It  is  easy  to  suggest  palliatives  of  our 
coexistence  if  we  come  together  again;  but  no  one  has  hitherto  been 
able  to  shew  how  either  section  can  live  in  sincere  peace  upon  the  only 
division  the  South  has  ever  claimed  or  suggested. 

I  have  no  doubt  that  we  cannot  go  on  with  this  war  on  its 
present  scale  forever.  But  the  wisest  statesmen  do  not  insist  upon 
looking  so  far  ahead.  England  could  not  have  gone  on  forever  against 
Napoleon  or  the  policy  of  Napoleon.  But  she  did  not  come  to  the 
day  when  either  expense  or  suffering  deterred  her  from  continuing 
her  resistance  while  that  man  and  his  policy  opposed  her.  Neither, 
do  I  think,  can  we  refrain  from  continuing,  indefinitely,  our  opposi 
tion  to  the  only  policy  the  South  has  ever  proclaimed, — just  as  dan 
gerous — indeed,  this  is  an  inadequate  expression — as  the  policy  and 
arms  of  Napoleon  were  to  England. 

There  you  see,  my  dear  sir,  that  although  I  confess  that  I  am 
full  of  regret,  even  to  sorrow,  for  the  state  of  things  here,  even  weak 
ened  and  enfeebled  in  health  and  spirits  more  than  by  the  decay  of 
years,  at  the  frequent  occurrence  of  battles  and  bloodshed  and  devasta 
tion,  yet  I  regard  the  North,  as  it  is  called,  as  still  contending  for 
her  honour,  and  peace,  and  life,  and  I  sustain  the  general  action  of 
this  government  in  opposition  to  the  continuing  defiance  of  the  South. 

Parties  do  not  die,  because  the  country  might  do  better  without 
them.  The  party  opposing  the  government  was  at  one  time  very 
menacing;  and  if  it  meant  what  it  threatened,  would  have  not  only 
put  us  at  the  feet  of  the  South  in  the  great  question  of  division,  but 
would  have  carried  over  Pennsylvania  and  other  States  depending  on 
free  labour.  That  danger  has  disappeared  for  the  moment,  tho'  it 
may  come  again.  There  is  no  avoiding  the  action  of  a  party  in  time 

375 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^T.  83 


of  war,  whether  civil  or  foreign,  because  it  has  been  formed  with 
reference  to  peace  and  peace  policies  only.  The  union  or  association 
of  men  for  any  great  purpose  is  too  useful  to  its  leaders  to  be  dis 
solved  under  any  circumstances,  if  they  can  help  it.  And  it  will  be 
maintained,  and  is  maintained  even  in  this  civil  war,  on  the  very  border 
of  treason,  and  sometimes  crossing  it.  We  cannot  help  this,  but  we 
may  strive  to  disappoint  the  purpose. 

I  was  much  struck  last  evening,  upon  taking  up  Cicero's  Let 
ters  in  Melmoth's  translation  (excuse  me),  to  find  the  same  condition 
of  things  in  the  civil  war  of  Rome.  He  tells  Plancus,  "  Let  me  conjure 
you,  therefore,  to  separate  yourself  from  those  associates  with  whom 
you  have  been  hitherto  united,  not  by  choice,  indeed,  but  by  the  general 
attraction  of  a  prevailing  party."  There  it  is  exactly,  —  union  against 
the  authority  of  government,  "  by  the  general  attraction  of  a  prevail 
ing  party."  But  the  Democratic  party  has  an  immense  fissure  in  it, 
and  this  is  the  present  strength  of  the  government.  As  it  is  a  demo 
cratic  party,  I  pray  that  the  parts  may  never  be  reunited,  but  this 
prayer  is  without  faith,  and  is  therefore  never  mixed  with  those  which 
I  address  to  my  Creator  and  Saviour.  I  have  a  horror  of  democracy  as 
the  radical  principle  of  a  government,  as  I  dare  say  I  may  have  said  to 
you,  for  I  have  no  concealments  ;  while  I  am  as  firm  a  friend  of  free 
government  as  any  man  that  lives.  If  this  party  shall  regain  its  old 
force,  as  probably  it  will,  the  government,  should  it  defeat  this  re 
bellion,  will  probably  be  the  old  thing,  —  not  the  best  thing  certainly, 
but  infinitely  better  than  anything  we  can  have  if  the  rebellion  shall 
triumph.  .  .  . 

Old  Lord  Lyndhurst  seems  to  have  departed  in  the  odour  of 
some  kind  of  sanctity.  Age  I  suppose  had  embalmed  him  in  some  way, 
at  least  in  the  estimate  of  the  leaders  of  some  of  your  journals.  When 
I  was  in  England  I  did  not  often  hear  him  spoken  of  with  as  much 
respect  as  his  talents  would  have  deserved  had  there  not  been  some 
considerable  drawback;  but  what  it  was  I  did  not  learn.  He  might 
have  suffered  in  the  opinion  of  Whigs,  from  his  ardent  and  efficient 
course  as  a  Tory  ;  and  if  this  was  all,  it  was  well  forgotten  when  he 
manifested  such  unusual  powers  in  his  very  old  age  for  general  politi- 

376 


1863]  THE    CIVIL    WAR 

cal  instruction.  I  saw  him  in  Boston  in  1795,  when  he  was  travelling 
as  a  Fellow  of  Cambridge,  I  believe.  It  seems  to  me  to  have  been  but 
a  year  since. 

Your  health,  my  dear  sir,  I  learned  from  the  letter  I  referred 
to  as  being  better,  and  that  of  Lady  Coleridge  also.  I  was  much 
gratified  by  it.  I  shall  always  be  happy  to  hear  of  the  welfare  of 
your  family.  My  own  is  as  it  was  a  year  ago,  only  a  year  older,  that 
is  to  say,  minus  a  year  of  life;  in  other  respects  unchanged,  which 
cannot  be  said  of  the  mass  of  my  countrymen,  nor  of  a  great  many 
in  these  times  and  parts. 

(To  Dr.  Lieber.) 

PHILADA.,  1  Dec.,  1863. 

On  this  first  of  the  month,  at  half-past  five  in  the  morning, 
under  my  bright  kerosene  lamp,  I  respond  to  all  you  say  about  the 
Amicitia,  the  rarest  and  best  of  the  human  ingredients  of  the  unitas 
fratum.  But  there  is  too  little  of  it,  in  the  Ciceronian  sense,  to  make 
it  a  matter  of  much  delight  or  even  of  speculation  with  my  country 
men.  They  are  too  universally  a  people  of  business ;  and  business  is 
the  rotation  of  self  upon  its  axis,  rarely  or  never  running  truly  in 
the  wheels  of  other  people.  I  rather  think  that  I  was  formed  for  the 
right  kind,  and  I  had  a  long  experience  of  it  with  my  friend  Chauncey. 
Some  also  I  had  with  one  other,  and  it  was  no  fault  of  my  wheels  that 
it  was  not  uninterrupted.  It  is  a  great  blessing  to  the  possessors, 
wherever  it  is  of  the  right  sort, — not  for  the  strength  it  imparts  to 
each,  by  no  means,  but  for  the  peace  it  brings  in  a  wider  relation 
than  a  man  has  to  himself.  When  I  speak  of  strength,  however,  I 
mean  strength  in  the  world,  strength  to  overcome  opposers.  The 
true  moral  strength  to  revolve  regularly  upon  your  own  pivot  of  duty 
to  all  around  you,  that  it  does  give  and  support  to  an  immense  degree, 
and  it  is  this  which  makes  the  friendship  of  two  or  more  virtuous  men, 
the  blessing  of  many,  and  the  assurance  of  all. 

I  am  glad  we  have  been  drawn  nearer  to  each  other  in  late 
years,  and  sorry  that  it  did  not  begin  when  we  first  knew  each  other. 
I  think  we  seem  to  agree  in  sentiments,  preferences,  aversions,  sympa- 

377 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JjJi.  84 

thies,  of  the  intellectual  and  moral  kind,  better  than  most.  But  we 
neither  of  us  know  what  might  happen  if  we  lived  next  door;  and 
therefore  I  moderate  all  my  regrets,  which  are  many,  at  your  living  a 
hundred  miles  away,  by  this  reflection.  We  are  not  likely  to  fall  out 
in  the  post-chaise ;  and  if  our  correspondence  brings  me  any  regret,  it 
is  the  ungrateful  one  that  I  am  too  old  to  permit  it  to  last  long.  May 
it  last  and  bear  good  fruit  while  we  live.  .  .  . 

(To  the  same.) 

PHILADA.,  23  Feb.,  1864. 

...   I  am  quite  glad  that  Mrs.  K 's  good  fortune  has  made 

her  husband  independent.  My  memory  goes  back  to  a  time  when, 
from  her  good  father's  position,  it  might  have  been  looked  for  at  an 
earlier  day;  but  better  late  than  never,  and  much  better  than  early 
and  not  late.  My  retrospect  of  the  duration  of  property  endowments 
in  this  State,  and  I  suppose  most  States  are  alike,  has  shaken  me  from 
any  such  anchorage.  I  pray  for  daily  bread  both  for  my  children 
and  myself,  but  I  go  no  farther ;  and  nobody  who  does  knows  what  he 
is  praying  for.  If  Pilate  had  asked  me  what  is  truth,  I  could  have 
answered  in  those  words,  that  no  man  who  prays  for  greater  pro 
vision  than  daily  bread  knows  what  he  is  praying  for.  He  who  prays 
for  that  and  nothing  beyond,  knows  that  he  is  praying  for  that,  and 
also  for  the  state  of  mind,  which  is  the  greatest  part  of  it.  Get  that 
and  keep  that,  and  the  fall  of  greenbacks  will  not  make  our  skies  fall, 
nor  shall  we  catch  larks,  but  much  better  birds. 

(To  J.  C.  Hamilton,  Esq.) 

PHILADA.,  14  Mar.,  1864. 

Your  interesting  letter  of  the  llth  has  been  walking  about  in 
my  head  day  and  night,  until,  coming  from  church  yesterday  after 
noon,  I  was  informed  by  a  friend  that  France  was  coming  with  inter 
vention,  something  more  than  recognition,  and  that  we  were  to  be  put 
much  more  upon  our  pluck  and  resources  than  we  had  hoped.  So, 
Russian  engouement,  Treasury  and  State  intrigues,  the  Greek  Church, 
and  grapes  in  Moscow  at  fifteen  cents  a  pound  from  the  Caspian  have 

378 


1864]  THE    CIVIL   WAR 

received  a  temporary  sedative  in  my  brain,  and  I  must  turn  to  ask 
you  what  you  know  about  this,  as  you  are  the  focus  of  all  the  escaping 
rays  of  information  from  the  departments  at  Washington.     If  Chase, 
like  Seward,  cares  nothing  about  true  fame,  but  only  wants  to  get 
on  the  top  of  the  pillar,  like  Simeon  Stylites,  to  be  looked  at  with 
upturned  eyes  by  the  people,  and  to  be  fanned  with  the  aura  popularis 
from  all  quarters  of  the  heavens,  as  Webster  did,  and  Clay  did,  and 
all  have  done  for  fifty  years  past  who  think  themselves  topmost,  why 
then,  in  my  notion,  this  republican  government  is  made  only  to  fool 
and  ruin  clever  men,  without  ever  deriving  any  solid  benefit  from  them. 
I  really  can  find  but  one  man  in  the  history  of  our  country  who  wished 
to  make  his  fame  out  of  what  he  had  done  for  his  country  in  the  way 
of  solidity  and  security.     I,  of  course,  don't  mean  Washington;    for 
though  his  heart  and  soul  were  devoted  to  doing  what  he  thought 
best  for  the  time  and  at  the  time,  yet  he  had  passed  the  age  of  con 
struction  when  he  first  came  upon  the  great  stage,  and  his  mind,  more 
over,  was  not  of  a  constructive  and  forecasting  order.    I  refer  to  your 
father,  who  has,  and  will,  I  fear,  continue  to  have  and  to  hold  the 
niche  of  a  true  state-builder,  alone  and  unapproachable,  and  made  an 
undying  name  by  laying  the  broad  and  deep  foundations  of  public 
security  and  solidity.     He  did  not  care  to  invent  a  tottling,  crazy, 
pillar,  nor  was  he  for  making  a  vacuum  all  round  him,  that  the  public 
current  might  draw  towards  him ;  but  he  meant  to  build  a  great  solid 
temple,  that  would  protect  and  cover  and  accommodate  everybody, 
his  ambition  being  to  have  his  name  inscribed  on  that,  and  in  its  great 
chambers,  as  his  enduring  reward.     These  aspirations  for  the  Presi 
dent's  office  are  to  me  a  wonder  and  an  astonishment,  and  I  sometimes 
think  that  the  most  decisive  argument  against  a  republic  is  that  it 
fools  and  dwarfs  the  best  minds  in  the  country,  by  directing  their 
hearts  towards  the  vain,  ephemeral  show  of  the  first  office  in  it,  to  be 
obtained  by  popular  arts  and  intrigues ;   and  the  saving  feature  of  a 
monarchy   is   its   permanent,   though  personally  insignificant,  head, 
which  compels  men  of  great  minds  from  thinking  of  the  pinnacle, 
and  drives  them  to  work  for  their  own  fame  in  the  elevation  and  con 
solidation  of  their  country.  .  .  . 

379 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Ex.  84 

In  July  Mr.  Hamilton  brought  out  his  edition  of  "  The 
Federalist,"  together  with  his  father's  earlier  essays,  known 
as  "  The  Continentalist,"  and  Mr.  Binney  published  a  brief 
but  careful  review  of  the  book. 


(To  J.  C.  Hamilton,  Esq.) 

PHILADA.,  4  Oct.,  1864. 

I  thank  you  for  your  letter  of  the  3d,  and  most  especially  for 
your  pamphlet.1  In  regard  to  one  part  of  your  letter,  please  omit 
printing  or  publishing  anything  in  regard  to  my  grandson.  Neither 
he  nor  any  of  his  family  belongs  to  the  vaunting,  puffing,  blatant 
self-praisers,  with  which  our  world  is  already  wearied  and  sickened. 
I  noticed  his  participation  in  the  fight  at  Opequan,  only  as  a  sort  of 
classical  feat  of  the  young  soldier,  to  beget  a  declaration  of  sympathy 
for  me,  which  is  so  pleasant  to  an  old  man. 

As  to  the  pamphlet,  it  is  as  full  of  sense  and  spirit  as  an  egg  is 
of  meat.  When  I  see  the  vicious  doctrines  of  Jefferson  reproduced 
as  they  are  in  State  rights,  and  in  all  the  spawn  of  rebellion,  I  feel 
that  evil  is  not  to  die  by  the  arms  of  man.  I  cry  out,  "  Sedet,  et  in 
ceternum  sedebit."  But  the  destruction  will  come  from  an  eternal 
vindicator,  when  it  shall  seem  meet  to  him.  In  the  mean  time  the  duty 
of  all  men  is  to  oppose  it  in  every  form,  and  never  to  cease  opposing 
it  whenever  and  wherever  it  shows  its  face.  I  need  not  say  that  I 
agree  with  all  you  say,  doctrinally  as  to  the  Constitution,  historically 
as  to  the  opinions  of  Washington  and  Hamilton,  and  politically  as  it 
regards  the  Chicago  convention  and  platform  and  the  candidates 
under  it.  I  only  say,  to  include  a  conclusion,  that  I  am  not,  and  never 
can  be  under  any  definition  that  I  can  adopt,  a  democrat.  That  the 
people  are  the  final  cause  and  the  Constitutional  origin  of  all  power 
among  us  is  true.  I  acknowledge  no  other,  for  either  a  republic  or  a 
monarchy;  and  having  reference  to  this  only,  the  government  of 
Napoleon  III.  is  as  democratic,  and  the  empire  as  much  a  democracy, 


Coercion  Completed,  or  Treason  Triumphant,"  New  York,  1864. 
380 


1864]  DEMOCRACY 

as  our  own.  But  the  moral  source  of  all  power,  which  is  also  the 
source  of  the  people,  has  respect  to  the  ends  and  purposes  of  power, 
and  for  the  highest  of  these  ends  and  purposes,  the  sure  establishment 
of  freedom  as  well  as  its  diffusion,  the  people  as  people  are  not  the 
true  source  of  it,  but  God  above,  and  the  moral  qualities  with  which 
His  grace  imbues  some  and  not  all  men.  Virtue,  reason,  love  for  man 
kind,  which  come  from  the  eternal  source  of  all  power,  have  better 
right  to  exercise  it  than  man  simply.  They  are  to  be  regarded  as  the 
qualifying  elements  of  man  for  the  exercise  of  power  over  himself  as 
well  as  over  others ;  and  therefore  with  me  the  mere  Demos  is  as  little 
of  an  idol  as  the  sheep  or  the  sheaf  he  feeds  upon.  His  moral  qualities 
are  his  true  title;  and  therefore,  while  I  admit  him  to  be  the  final 
cause  of  political  power  with  us,  I  do  not  admit  him  to  be  the  efficient 
cause  of  power  in  government.  Hence  I  require  siftings,  distinctions, 
and  qualifications,  in  all  preparations  for  the  exercise  of  political 
power.  I  am  a  republican,  not  a  square-toed,  crop-haired  sumptuarist 
(I  coin  the  word),  iron-hearted  fellow,  like  Cato  the  Censor,  nor  even 
like  Brutus,  the  much  better  and  kindlier  man,  though  he  killed  Caesar, 
nor  even  like  Cato  of  Utica,  who  was  an  aristocrat  like  Brutus,  and 
withal  an  oligarch ;  but  I  would  fain  fill  this  definition  generally,  with 
the  properties  of  a  large  heart,  full  of  love  for  the  whole  public  good, 
which  is  the  good  of  every  man,  and  so  limiting  the  power  of  the 
people  as  to  make  it  turn  in  some  degree  upon  the  evidences  of  their 
moral  qualifications.  I  do  not  assert  that  this  is  very  practicable,  and 
I  do  admit  that  any  rigour  or  excess  in  the  application  of  it  is  very 
dangerous  politically ;  but  this  is  my  ideal,  and  if  ever  I  took  a  name, 
it  should  be  that,  and  not  the  name  of  democrat.  Our  Constitution 
is  not  democratical,  but  the  reverse ;  but  whether  it  should  be  demo- 
cratical  or  republican,  I  think,  is  left  too  much  to  the  States,  and  so 
did  your  father.  He  saw,  and  I  think  I  see,  that  there  may  be  more 
republicanism  in  a  monarchy  than  there  is  sometimes  in  a  democracy, 
which  may  be  only  another  name  for  demagogracy,  the  worst  govern 
ment  and  policy  upon  earth,  growing  by  what  it  feeds  on  till  it  breaks 
down  its  support. 


381 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  84-85 

(To  Dr.  Lieber.) 

PHILADA.,  18  Nov.,  1864. 

For  a  few  weeks  I  have  not  been  quite  as  well  as  usual,  the  prin 
cipal  trouble  being  in  the  eyes;  but  the  election  has  been  euphrasy 
to  them,  and  I  hope  soon  to  have  a  full  use  of  them.  What  a  glory 
it  has  been ;  and  yet  what  an  infinite  disgrace,  what  an  ablation  of  all 
honour,  the  loss  of  it  would  have  been !  I  am  almost  unwilling  to 
allow  credit  for  the  success,  so  shameful  would  have  been  the  defeat. 
And  yet  it  is  a  great  honour  to  a  people  to  be  so  extensively  possessed 
of  a  virtuous  sentiment,  and  to  carry  it  so  firmly  and  loftily  in  the 
midst  of  suffering  and  sacrifice.  It  has  made  me  feel,  more  than  I 
ever  expected  to  do,  that  we  are  a  nation,  a  country,  and  that,  God 
helping  us,  we  will  remain  so  against  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the 
devil.  This,  and  none  other,  is,  I  think,  the  voice  of  the  election,  what 
it  says,  as  it  were,  to  Heaven,  what  it  says  to  the  people  of  Europe, 
and  to  all  points  of  the  compass.  And  well  for  us  is  it  that  the  voice 
has  said  it,  for  what  should  we  become  otherwise?  My  apprehension 
has  been  that  if  we  should  fail  on  this  trial,  we  should  be  worse  off 
than  any  other  people  in  the  world  in  a  like  case  of  dissolution.  We 
have  so  false  a  principle  of  combination  in  us,  such  a  preference  for 
private  partnerships  in  government,  such  a  repulsion  from  everybody 
out  of  our  own  plot  or  survey, — I  say  this  of  our  opponents  and  not 
of  ourselves, — that  we  should  have  torn  each  other  to  pieces  in  the 
convulsion — States  and  men  pulling  and  haling  every  way — and  our 
race  would  have  been  given  over  as  incurably  centrifugal  and  inca 
pable  of  alligation.  As  I  go  out  of  the  world,  it  will  be  a  comfort 
to  think  that  this  is  not  now  so  likely  to  be  our  fate  as  I  once 
thought.  .  .  . 

(To  the  same.) 

PHILADA.,  3  Jany.,  1865. 

...  As  to  the  universal  suffrage  of  free  blacks,  my  judgment 
is  suspended.  I  have  no  repugnance  to  it.  Fifty  years  ago,  as  a 
judge  of  election,  I  ruled  that  a  free  black  native  of  Pennsylvania, 
who  had  paid  his  tax,  was  entitled  to  vote ;  and  there  was  no  dissent. 

389 


1864-65]  NEGRO    SUFFRAGE 

Our  Democrats,  to  accommodate  the  South,  changed  our  Constitu 
tion  in  1838  (amended  it,  they  said)  by  confining  the  elections  to  white 
freemen.  But  I  have  always  questioned,  and  almost  repudiated,  the 
quietism  of  the  Federal  Constitution  in  turning  over  to  the  States 
the  qualification  for  representatives  in  Congress.  The  United  States 
should  have  prescribed  it  for  themselves,  as  a  definite  qualification,  of 
freehold,  tax,  etc.  Representatives  and  direct  taxes  have  no  proper 
interrelation,  nor  ought  they  to  have,  to  mere  numbers.  Numbers 
should  signify  more  than  heads  of  human  beings.  They  ought  to  be 
numbers  of  political  beings;  for  if  they  are  not  these,  they  might 
as  well  be  oxen  or  asses  as  human  beings.  If  they  are  able  to  elect 
and  be  elected  as  representatives  in  the  State  Legislature,  that  per 
haps  might  suffice  for  Congress.  But  is  it  practicable?  At  present 
1  doubt  it;  and  at  present,  and  until  full  opportunity  for  observa 
tion,  say  until  1900  A.D.,  I  had  rather  confine  the  apportionment  of 
Representatives  to  white  free  men,  leaving  the  question  of  compre 
hending  others  to  a  future  day,  not  too  remote. 

But  it  is  only  one  of  the  thousand  and  one  difficulties  of  the  day. 
I  don't  believe  that  Wendell  Phillips  is  sane ;  for  no  man  can  be  sane 
who  is  for  doing  everything  he  approves  at  once  and  not  by  degrees. 
Almighty  power  and  infinite  wisdom  do  not  work  in  this  way.  God 
made  the  world  in  six  days  and  not  in  one;  that  is,  He  made  it  by 
degrees.  What  an  absurdity  is  it  to  say,  You  must  do  it  in  the  end, 
and  therefore  you  may  as  well  do  it  now!  The  best  reason  for  not 
doing  it  now  is  that  you  do  not  know  enough  or  that  things  are  not 
at  present  fitted  for  it,  as  they  may  be  in  the  end.  At  present,  if  the 
South  gave  the  qualification  of  electors  to  the  free  blacks,  the  blacks 
would  be  too  feeble  to  use  it  properly.  They  would  be  the  tools  of 
faction,  and  work  mischief,  and  against  our  peace  rather  than  for  it. 

You  are  right  in  saying  that  I  do  not  care  to  read  the  journals, 
nor  to  write  about  them.  Do  you  call  this  history  as  it  passes?  Then 
it  is  made  of  shockingly  bad  materials.  Nine-tenths  is  a  lie,  which  is 
within  a  tenth  of  what  Sir  Robert  Walpole  thought  of  all  history,  and 
I  do  not.  I  care  less  about  history  as  it  passes  than  I  do  after  it  is 
caught,  and  can  be  held  in  the  hands,  and  turned  on  all  sides.  But 

383 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^T.  85 


I  like  to  chatter  to  you  with  the  pen  and  to  read  what  you  write.  Mrs. 
L.  is  right.  Don't  let  this  communion  die,  except  a  natural  death, 
which  can't  be  far  off.  I  shall  be  eighty-five  if  I  live  seven  hours,  and 
whether  I  do  or  not,  affectionately  yours, 

HOR:  BINNEY. 

(To  J.  C.  Hamilton,  Esq.) 

PHILADA.,  Jan.  10,  1865. 

I  thank  you  for  your  excellent  letter.  I  like  all  its  suggestions. 
I  am  getting  on  well,  as  well  as  possible,  with  such  weather,  which 
makes  me  miss  my  indispensable  oxygenation.  We  want  a  man  in 
Congress.  O  for  such  a  man  as  I  wot  of  !  But  he  is  among  the  stars. 
God  bless  him  and  his  memory  forever.  No  occultation  will  ever  hide 
him  from  those  who  have  once  seen  him.  Haven't  I  read  the  report 
on  public  credit?  Don't  I  know  it,  revere  it,  and  revere  its  author  for 
his  sublime  political  virtue? 

I  think  they  care  little  about  it  at  Washington,  the  whole  being 
absorbed  in  the  work  of  loaning,  which  they  believe  they  help  by  the 
worthlessness  of  the  thing  loaned.  Perhaps  they  do;  but  the  time 
will  come  when  this  must  come  down,  and  where  will  then  be  the  credit 
to  build  up  again?  The  worst  thing  I  know  against  Mr.  Chase  is  his 
consenting  to  that  audacious  special  income  duty  upon  the  income  of 
an  expired  year,  which  had  already  paid  the  income  tax  assessed  or 
charged  upon  it  while  it  was  in  hand  ;  and  if  this  special  income  duty 
applies  to  the  interest  on  the  public  debt,  as  they  say  it  does,  then  in 
my  judgment  it  is  a  plain  and  gross  breach  of  public  faith.  However, 
it  is  all  to  be  disregarded  under  the  new  law  of  1863.  Certainly  there 
can  be  no  return  of  spirits  to  the  earth  they  have  left,  or  your  father's 
would  revisit  and  frighten  them  in  the  Capitol  !  .  .  . 

(To  Sir  J.  T.  Coleridge.) 

PHILADELPHIA,  11  March,  1865. 

I  had  no  right  to  the  great  pleasure  I  have  received  from  your 
late  letter  of  23  Feb.  from  Torquay,  when  I  was  already  your  debtor 
for  the  preceding  one  of  Nov.  19  from  your  own  home.  You  are 

384 


1865]        TREATMENT    OF    PRISONERS 

quite  right  in  one  of  your  suggestions  as  to  the  reason  of  your  not 
having  heard  from  me,  and  as  wrong  as  possible  in  regard  to  the 
other.  A  day  or  two  after  the  receipt  of  that  letter  of  19  Nov.  I  took 
rather  a  long  walk  on  a  very  cold  day,  the  first  of  the  very  cold 
weather  that  was  to  follow,  and  in  the  afternoon  found  myself  lamed 
by  the  effort.  It  proved  to  my  family  physician  the  next  morning 
to  be  an  inflammation  of  the  lymphatics  or  absorbents,  as  they  are 
called,  of  my  left  leg  near  the  ankle,  and  extending  above  the  knee; 
and  altho'  it  yielded  pretty  readily  to  a  cold  dressing  of  lime-water, 
the  fever  which  first  attended  it,  and  the  warm  room  night  and  day 
to  which  I  was  sentenced,  and  to  which  I  was  wholly  unaccustomed, 
completely  unfitted  me  for  the  severe  winter  that  was  then  begun,  and 
lasted  to  the  end  of  February.  I  have  never  felt  so  tender,  old,  and 
good  for  nothing.  What  time  I  could  write,  I  had  to  give  in  another 
direction,  and  so  my  acknowledgement  of  that  letter  was  deferred. 

As  to  your  other  suggestion  that  this  might  have  been  owing  to 
something  you  had  said  to  my  son  on  the  subject  of  the  publication  by 
the  Sanitary  Commission,  it  was  further  from  the  fact  than  the  pole 
from  the  equator,  as  far  from  us  as  the  antipodes.  Fie !  Fie !  Never 
think  of  such  a  thing.  I  did  not  concur  with  you,  and  I  will  presently 
tell  you  why ;  but  that  my  non-concurrence  with  anything  you  write 
to  me  or  to  him  could  have  the  effect  of  estranging  or  silencing  me— 
my  dear  Judge  Coleridge,  there  is  no  man  on  earth,  whose  hand  I 
have  never  shaken,  that  I  love  and  respect  half  as  much  as  yourself. 
A  difference  of  opinion  between  us  would  make  me  think  myself  wrong 
in  regard  to  nearly  every  matter  of  opinion;  that  in  regard  to  any 
point  it  could  make  me  think  you  were  unkind,  or  wanting  in  consid 
eration  for  me  or  my  family,  is  utterly  impossible. 

I  did  not  concur  with  you  on  the  point  of  publication.  On  the 
contrary,  I  advised  it  before  it  was  determined  upon.  The  exchange 
of  prisoners  was  broken  off  by  the  black  question.  Our  men  were 
starving  in  the  hands  of  the  rebels  wherever  they  were  in  prison, 
believed  this  to  be  a  government,  and  not  an  army,  decree;  and  I 
thought  too  well  of  many  persons  in  the  South  to  doubt  that  if  they 
knew  what  we  did  on  this  head,  they  would  act  upon  their  government 

25  385 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^T.  85 


and  bring  back  exchanges  upon  the  only  principle  on  which  we  could 
admit  them.  And  the  result  justifies  me. 

As  to  the  question  of  starving  and  barbarous  usage,  do  not  enter 
tain  a  doubt  that  the  facts  in  that  publication  are  irrefragably  true. 
They  are  so  indubitable  that  we  should  have  had  a  horrid  scene,  if 
what  some  persons  wished  had  been  assented  to  by  a  majority  of  the 
two  houses.  When  I  was  asked  what  I  thought  of  retaliation  in  kind, 
I  answered,  it  is  out  of  the  question;  your  people  will  not  submit  to 
it;  they  will  break  down  your  prison  walls  by  their  cries  and  execra 
tions,  and  feed  and  clothe  the  prisoners  themselves  if  you  attempt  to 
starve  them,  or  to  turn  them  out  into  the  winter  and  cold  without  fire 
or  shelter.  Nothing  of  that.  Let  their  own  people  know  what  has 
been  going  on  among  them.  If  that  does  not  bring  a  remedy,  let  the 
government  make  a  formal  protest  to  every  nation  upon  earth,  with 
which  we  have  friendly  relations,  against  this  departure  from  the 
modern  law  of  war,  and  leave  the  rest  to  Heaven.  "  Vengeance  is 
mine  !"  Such  was  my  advice,  and  I  still  think  it  was  right. 

There  is  something,  my  dear  sir,  which  prevents  excellent  men 
in  England  from  concurring  with  excellent  men  in  the  United  States 
upon  hardly  any  point  in  our  present  controversy  with  the  South, 
altho'  entirely  congenial  upon  almost  every  other  topic.  I  will  not 
say  what  I  think  it  is.  I  think  I  see  it  in  Englishmen  for  whom  I 
have  great  respect,  admiration,  and  even  affection.  Of  course,  I  do 
not  think  they  see  it  themselves.  It  is  perhaps  in  the  atmospheres 
that  both  of  us  are  breathing,  and  either  may  be  as  prejudicially 
affected  by  it  as  the  other.  I  think  it  teaches  the  lesson  to  such  an 
old  man  as  myself  not  to  enter  upon  any  such  matter  with  one  I  so 
much  love  and  regard  as  yourself.  .  .  . 

We  have  Canada  on  the  North,  and  Mexico  on  the  South,  and 
our  Civil  War  in  the  midst:  sufficient,  certainly,  for  the  day.  But 
nothing  will  come  of  Canada,  now  or  at  any  time,  except  talk  among 
uninformed  politicians.  I  should  be  surprised  at  Lord  Derby  if  he 
were  not  speaking  for  persons  who  want  to  get  into  power. 

Mexico  imports  us  more.  I  have  no  doubt  monarchy  is  better 
for  the  Mexicans  than  a  republic  ;  tho'  it  is  hard  to  say  what  is  best 

386 


1865]  THE    CIVIL    WAR 

for  a  people  who  have  had  no  government  for  fifty  years,  nor  before 
that  anything  but  priestcraft.  If  Napoleon's  hand  were  not  in  it,  it 
might  give  us  less  trouble,  but  we  have  even  more  suspicion  of  him 
than  fear.  We  have  more  fear  of  England  than  suspicion.  We  think 
we  know  all  that  she  means.  She  means,  and  has  from  the  beginning 
meant,  to  make  profit  out  of  the  law  of  nations,  as,  in  our  case,  she 
says  it  permits  her.  If  we  were  as  free-handed  as  she  is,  we  would 
not  permit  it  for  a  day;  nor  would  she  if  our  state  should  become 
hers. 

Pray  write  again  and  tell  me  something  about  the  Judicial  Com 
mittee,  and  what  it  is  intended  to  do  with  the  law  of  it. 

(To  Dr.  Lieber.) 

PHILADA.,  7  April,  1865. 

I  am  of  course  highly  gratified  by  success  against  Richmond 
and  Lee's  army,  and  shall  be  gratified  by  more  of  the  same  kind.  But 
it  is  not  old  age,  I  think,  but  something  congenital  which  keeps  down 
in  me  sudden  ebullitions  of  joy  or  grief.  I  have  a  special  reason  to 
explain  the  absence  of  any  jubilant  outburst  at  present.  I  do  not 
think  the  end  is  yet;  and  I  think  I  perceive  that  mere  prolongation 
of  time  and  expense  is  to  be  very  costly  to  us.  The  people  of  the 
rebel  States  are,  I  apprehend,  to  restore  the  Union,  if  it  is  to  be  re 
stored.  Our  armies  no  doubt  must  give  them  the  impulse,  but  the 
rebels  must  receive  it  and  carry  it  on  to  the  proper  end.  My  convic 
tions,  determinations,  fixed  purposes,  have  all  been  on  defensive  suc 
cess  ;  for  I  counted  no  cost,  no  loss,  as  anything  in  comparison  with 
sufferings  and  losses  in  body,  soul,  and  mind,  by  the  triumph  of  South 
ern  arrogance,  insolence,  and  slaveocracy.  I  have  always  been  willing 
to  go  to  the  last  end  in  offensive  defence  against  such  a  consumma 
tion,  even  to  the  very  last  end,  the  jumping-off  place.  But  after  that 
defence  was  achieved  I  have  never  been  able  to  see  much  beyond ;  and 
I  do  not  think  the  clouds  in  the  horizon  will  be  lifted  up  to  me,  except 
by  the  Southern  people  themselves.  I  am  not  at  all  without  hope; 
but  with  every  success  on  our  part  there  mingles  just  enough  of  the 
uncertain  future  to  hold  my  feet  to  the  earth,  and  to  keep  me  from 

387 


HORACE    BINNEY  MT.  85 


great  altitudes  of  joy.  I  do  not,  however,  wish  to  repress  others; 
and  I  admit  that  the  nervous  secretions  are  much  and  healthily  pro 
moted  by  elevated  joy  and  triumph  in  a  great  and  good  cause,  as  ours 
is.  I  thought  Napoleon's  preface  a  piece  of  consummate  affectation, 
rather  than  commonplace.  I  could  not  extract  anything  that  was 
either  new  or  good  from  its  sententiousness  ;  but  thought  I  perceived 
that  he  was  on  the  stage,  and  meant  to  walk  in  the  buskin  of  philo 
sophical  history.  I  hardly  expect  he  will  tell  us  more  of  Julius  Csesar 
than  we  know  already,  or  tell  it  in  a  better  way.  But  this  is  your 
province,  and  somebody  will  live  to  see  you  fill  it,  as  you  can. 

What  that  is  which  you  are  expecting  to  send  me  I  do  not  con 
jecture;  but  any  one  who  is  writing  what  he  wishes  me  to  read  must 
make  haste,  as  I  said  to  a  gentleman  who  is  preparing  an  extended 
memoir  of  Professor  Silliman.  The  winter  has  been  one  of  bodily 
discontent,  and  I  perceive,  as  well  I  may,  that  the  foot  of  time  may 
be  inaudible  and  noiseless,  and  yet  leave  its  very  discernible  marks 
after  he  has  passed  on.  Still  the  freshness  of  my  heart  is,  I  think, 
undiminished  ;  and  I  feel  as  near  to  what  is  called  faith  as  possible, 
that  this  will  remain  to  its  last  beat.  I  may  suifer  the  more  for  it. 
This  must  be  as  God  pleases  ;  but  all  my  happiness  here  must  come 
from  this,  and  it  is  some  ground  for  the  hereafter. 

I  have  not  been  idle  myself  this  past  winter;  but  you  will  hear 
more  of  it  when  I  shall  be  ready  to  speak. 

The  last  sentence  of  the  above  letter  refers  to  Mr.  Bin- 
ney's  third  Habeas  Corpus  pamphlet.  In  July,  1864,  Mr. 
Hamilton  had  suggested  to  him  that  there  might  be  some 
thing  more  to  say  about  suspension,  and  he  had  replied  as 
follows  : 

As  to  the  Habeas  Corpus,  I  will  continue  to  think  about  it,  as  I 
have  done.  One  of  my  difficulties  is  that  Congress  have  bed  —  d  the 
subject  by  their  Act,  having  first,  in  new  and  unusual  language  for  an 
Act  of  Congress,  asserted  or  declared  the  President's  right  in  the 
strongest  and  most  explicit  terms,  and  then  proceeded  to  regulate 
partially  his  proceedings,  as  if  the  power  was  their  own.  If  I  could 

388 


1865]  HABEAS    CORPUS 

make  an  argument  to  justify  this,  I  should  already  have  tried  it,  and 
introduced  the  English  practice  before  the  third  Parliament  of  Charles 
I.,  which  I  may  suppose  some  of  the  Convention  had  in  their  eye. 
But  I  have  an  unspeakable  aversion  to  get  again  into  an  argument 
of  any  gravity,  which  grievously  disturbs  my  health.  I  will,  however, 
think  about  it ;  and  if  I  live  to  the  cool  weather  of  the  autumn,  I  may 
go  at  it. 

The  result  was  that  by  March,  1865,  he  had  completed 
an  essay  on  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  power  of  suspension 
of  the  privilege  of  the  writ,  considered  generally,  in  the  light 
of  the  records  and  authorities  in  regard  to  such  suspension 
in  England.  The  investigations  which  gave  rise  to  his 
pamphlet  in  no  way  weakened  his  previous  view  of  the  Presi 
dent's  power  under  the  Constitution,  but  rather  convinced 
him  that  the  proper  limitations  of  the  power,  in  the  interest 
of  liberty,  could  only  be  maintained  by  vesting  it  in  the  Presi 
dent.  He  did  not  argue  the  question  with  reference  to  the 
particular  President  or  the  actual  Congress,  but  solely  with 
a  view  to  the  safe  and  efficient  exercise  of  a  power  granted 
by  the  Constitution.  While  disclaiming  any  intention  to 
criticise  either  President  or  Congress,  he  confessed  his  in 
ability  to  follow  either  the  Act  of  March  3,  1863,  or  the 
particular  instances  of  suspension  either  before  or  since  the 
passage  of  that  act,  and  he  concluded  as  follows : 

Having,  three  years  since,  entered  upon  the  consideration  of  the 
President's  power  to  suspend  the  privilege  of  the  Writ,  I  have  thought 
it  proper,  in  a  moment  of  greater  calm,  and  of  renewed  confidence  by 
the  people  in  the  political  virtue  of  the  President,  which  gives  addi 
tional  vigour  to  all  his  lawful  power  under  the  Constitution  and  laws, 
to  show  that  what  I  then  wrote  did  not  proceed  from  opinions  that 
were  hostile  to  the  personal  liberty  of  freemen,  whatever  might  be 
their  opinions,  within  any  range  that  does  not  include  treasonable 

389 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JBi.  85 

designs  against  the  United  States;  and  that  it  as  little  proceeded 
from  a  disposition  to  curtail  the  judicial  power  as  the  Constitution 
creates  it  and  the  laws  have  organized  its  tribunals.  If  the  laws  work 
freely  within  the  scope  of  the  Constitution  for  the  defence  of  our 
Union  and  unity  as  a  nation,  there  need  be  no  fear  that  either  the 
Union  or  the  Constitution  will  break  down  in  the  hearts  of  the  people 
by  the  weight  of  any  extra  authority  the  Habeas  Corpus  clause  gives 
to  the  government  in  seasons  like  the  present,  which  the  calm  j  udgment 
of  the  supreme  adjudicating  power  shall  deliberately  sanction  as  fairly 
comprehended  by  the  grant. 

In  careful  arrangement,  clearness  of  statement,  and 
depth  of  reasoning  this  pamphlet  equals  anything  that  Mr. 
Binney  produced  at  any  period  of  his  life,  but  it  is  not  sur 
prising  that  thereafter  he  undertook  no  more  such  tasks. 
While  it  was  in  press  occurred  the  surrender  of  General  Lee 
and  the  assassination  of  President  Lincoln,  so  that  the  actual 
publication  was  delayed  until  the  latter  part  of  May. 

(To  J.  C.  Hamilton,  Esq.) 

PHILADA.,  17  Apr.,  1865. 

Little  could  you  have  anticipated,  when  you  were  writing  your 
late  letter  to  me,  the  horrid  event  that  was  to  occur  on  the  evening 
of  the  same  day.  It  has  shrouded  us,  just  after  the  most  consummate 
victory  our  arms  have  had,  and  on  the  eve  of  our  Easter  rejoicings. 
I  really  wept,  as  did  all  my  family,  on  the  receipt  of  the  intelligence. 
When  the  whole  scene  spread  itself  before  me, — the  theatre,  the  lights 
and  smiles,  his  wife  at  his  side,  with  his  friends  around  him,  the  absence 
of  all  guard,  which  he  never  would  have,  and  of  all  appearance  of 
necessity  for  it,  and  his  real  goodness  and  kindness  of  heart,  which 
everybody  acknowledged,  and  his  undoubted  honesty  and  zeal  to  do 
what  he  thought  his  duty, — it  really  overpowered  me.  There  has 
been  nothing  like  it  in  history,  and  nothing  could  have  occurred  so 
characteristic  of  the  spirit  which  slavery  engenders,  and  has  in  so 
many  other  instances  marked  the  course  of  rebellion  in  the  South. 

390 


1865]       ASSASSINATION    OF    LINCOLN 

They  have  murdered  our  helpless  old  men  and  women  by  their  gueril 
las,  and  have  left  children  to  starve.  They  have  starved  to  death,  or 
to  death's  door,  more  than  twenty  thousand  of  our  soldiers.  They 
began  in  violated  oaths,  and  in  treading  the  honour  of  the  soldiers 
into  the  mire,  and  plundering  anything  that  was  stealable.  The 
Southern  officers  in  the  Cabinet  showed  themselves  to  be  insensible  to 
the  obligations  of  honour  and  honesty.  There  has  not  been  one  inci 
dent  or  mark  of  that  chivalry  they  talk  of,  from  beginning  to  end; 
and  now  they,  that  is  to  say,  their  spirit  and  principles,  have  mur 
dered  the  man  who  has  shown  the  most  benignity  towards  them,  and 
have  endeavoured  to  murder  Seward,  who  had  less  to  do  with  them 
than  any  other  minister.  Slavery,  depend  upon  it,  is  the  only  thing 
that  could  have  so  corrupted  the  old  English  and  Scotch  blood.  .  .  . 

I  should  like  to  know  what  General  Halleck  thinks  of  police 
measures,  of  more  stiffness  and  sternness  of  public  manners,  of  less 
shaking  of  hands,  and  open  access.  We  began  right  in  Washington's 
time.  His  carriage  suited  the  station.  But  everything  that  Jefferson 
did  in  measures  and  in  manners,  in  great  things  and  in  small,  has  been 
whittling  us  down  to  shavings  in  all  that  regards  dignity.  This 
murder  may  be  a  reason  for  not  riding  with  the  snaffle  at  all 
times.  .  .  . 

(To  Sir  J.  T.  Coleridge.} 

PHILADELPHIA,  12  May,  1865. 

Your  most  kind  letter  of  Good  Friday  brought  me  the  gratifica 
tion  which  comes  with  all  your  letters,  perhaps  more  than  the  general 
very  high  average,  from  the  kindness  with  which  you  took  in  good  part 
my  too  familiar  chiding  for  your  apparent  undervaluation  in  one 
instance  of  my  assured  regard  for  you.  I  am  sure  that  we  two  cannot 
finally  misunderstand  each  other,  tho'  I  have  seen  your  face  only  for 
half  an  hour,  and  you  have  never  consciously  seen  mine.  The  touch 
of  hands  is  undoubtedly  a  great  thing  to  complete  the  electric  chain; 
but  a  strong  charge  of  positive  feelings  and  principles  easily  leaps  a 
chasm  to  the  sympathy  on  the  other  side. 

Your  letter  has  come  to  me  in  the  midst  of  great  events  in  my 
country,  and  shortly  after  one  of  the  most  painful  and  melancholy 

391 


HORACE   BINNEY  ^T.  85 


that  this  or  any  other  nation  has  experienced  from  the  wicked  destruc 
tion  of  a  single  man's  virtuous  life.  We  have  passed  from  tears  to 
indignation,  and  from  indignation  to  tears,  continually  since  its 
occurrence.  You  know  all  this,  however,  by  the  newspapers,  and 
I  will  not  detain  you  by  any  description  of  it,  or  by  any  comment 
upon  it. 

Let  me  say  that  our  political  order  under  the  Constitution  was 
immediately  reinstated,  and  that,  notwithstanding  what  you  may  have 
heard  of  President  Johnson's  inauguration  day  as  Vice-President,  I 
have  no  belief  that  the  circumstances  were  the  effect  of  a  habit,  and 
still  less  of  a  confirmed  habit;  nor  have  I  any  serious  fears  for  the 
reconstruction  of  the  government  in  reasonable  time,  if  foreign  powers 
will  permit  us  to  come  to  it  in  peace.  If  the  slave-holders  will  let 
slavery  go,  as  they  must,  and  give  their  aid  to  the  application  of  free 
labor,  as  I  think  they  will,  they  will  in  general  be  cordially  assisted 
in  their  recovery,  with  such  exceptions  of  personal  leading,  and  fraud 
ulent  and  cruel  following  only,  as  cannot  be  overlooked.  It  is  not 
desired  by  the  best  men  in  our  country,  and  is  not  probably  intended 
by  President  Johnson,  nor  would  it  consist,  we  suppose,  with  either 
justice  or  national  dignity,  that  the  crime  of  high  treason,  aggravated 
as  it  had  been,  should  be  obliterated  from  our  morality  or  our  public 
policy.  But  this  people  of  the  North  and  West  is,  I  believe,  in  their 
present  temper  and  habits,  incapable  of  sanguinary  retaliation.  .  .  . 

Let  me  say,  in  answer  to  your  suggestions  about  my  further 
writing  and  printing,  that  I  have  neither  ambition  nor  pretentions 
as  a  writer,  and  that  if  I  had  either  or  both,  my  waning  sight  pre 
cludes  any  effort  in  that  direction.  I  hurt  one  of  my  eyes  last  winter 
by  writing  a  paper  on  the  nature,  range,  and  extent  of  the  power  to 
suspend  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus  under  our  Con 
stitution.  I  differed  from  both  President  Lincoln  and  Congress  in 
regard  to  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  power,  and  particularly  in 
regard  to  the  ouster  of  the  judicial  department  from  all  cognizance 
of  the  cause.  Though  I  am  not  particularly  desirous  of  submitting 
to  your  eye  anything  that  I  write  upon  constitutional  law,  I  will  send 
you  a  copy  in  a  few  days. 

392 


1865]  HABEAS    CORPUS 

Same  day. 

I  was  about  closing  my  letter,  when  the  postman  brought  me  your 
last  of  27  April. 

I  knew  you  would  condole  with  me,  and  as  sincerely  as  possible, 
and  more  on  my  account.  I  knew  you  would  tell  me  so.  But  Mr. 
Seward  lives,  and  is  recovered  from  the  stabs  of  the  assassin,  and  from 
all  but  the  injury  by  the  fracture  of  his  jaw,  when  his  horses  took 
fright,  and  he  was  thrown  or  jumped  from  his  carriage.  The  parties 
to  the  assassination  are  now  on  trial  in  Washington. 

I  am  able  to  add  that  we  have  this  moment  official  intelligence 
that  Jefferson  Davis  has  been  captured,  with  his  wife  and  official 
family,  in  the  southeast  of  Georgia,  seventy-five  miles  southeast  from 
Macon. 

15  May. 

We  have  further  official  intelligence  that  on  the  10th  May  a 
regiment  of  Michigan  cavalry  surrounded  his  camp  an  hour  or  two 
before  daylight.  Another  regiment  of  Wisconsin  cavalry  in  the  same 
pursuit,  taking  the  Michigan  regiment  for  rebels,  attacked  them,  and 
lost  some  in  wounded  on  one  side,  and  two  killed  on  the  other  before 
the  mistake  was  discovered.  The  firing  alarmed  Davis,  and  he  put  on 
a  dress  of  his  wife  and  attempted  to  escape  in  the  woods,  but  was 
betrayed  by  his  boots  and  taken.  We  have  as  yet  no  account  of  the 
gold  and  silver  he  was  trying  to  run  off.  Cromwell,  I  think,  would 
not  have  done  this.  How  it  would  have  been  with  Napoleon  I.  I  will 
not  surmise. 

(To  Dr.  Lieber.) 

PHILADA.,  26  June,  1865. 

I  send  you  by  mail  this  morning  two  separate  copies  of  Part 
III.  .  .  . 

If  you  think  the  last  paragraph  of  my  pamphlet  is  not  trans 
parent,  I  would  have  you  recollect  that  the  Act  of  3  March,  1863, 
intercepts  the  Supreme  Court,  or  rather,  meant  to  intercept  it.  I 
meant  to  reprove  the  attempt  by  saying  that  no  power  which  that 
tribunal  could  deliberately  sanction  as  fairly  included  in  the  Consti 
tutional  grant,  would  alienate  the  people  at  such  a  time  from  the 

393 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^T.  85-86 


Constitution  and  Union.  That  was  of  course  the  same  as  saying  that 
it  was  impossible  for  the  Supreme  Court  to  deduce  the  power  of  im 
prisonment  without  cause  or  offence  from  the  Habeas  Corpus  clause. 

Upon  the  whole,  I  do  not  think  the  ruler  in  this  matter  at  Wash 
ington  was  candid  in  regard  to  Part  I.  In  the  Proclamation  in  Sept., 
1862,  the  executive  power  was  clutched,  and  then  extended  in  two 
directions,  directly  against  the  express  warning  of  that  paper,  —  1,  by 
general  and  prospective  suspension;  2,  by  ignoring  the  necessity  of 
any  complicity  with  rebellion  ;  and  Congress  sanctioned  both  excesses. 
If  there  had  been  a  reasonable  intimation  that  the  government  did 
not  think  I  had  gone  far  enough,  I  should  have  been  satisfied;  but 
they  left  me  to  be  taken  as  the  suggester  of  all.  I  always  intended  to 
leave  a  denial  of  this  behind  me,  doing  the  government  the  least  injury 
in  my  power;  for  I  heartily  wished  them  success  in  every  point  and 
particular  of  the  contest.  .  .  . 


394 


1865-66]      DEATH    OF    MRS.  BINNEY 


XV 

LAST    YEARS 
1865-1875 

ON  the  morning  of  December  5,  1865,  Mrs.  Binney 
passed  away.  For  more  than  seven  years  she  had 
been  crippled  by  rheumatic  gout,  bearing  her  ever- 
increasing  sufferings  with  the  utmost  patience  and  cheer 
fulness.  The  loss  was  keenly  felt  by  her  husband,  then 
approaching  his  eighty-seventh  year,  but  he  bore  it  as  one 
who  expected  a  speedy  reunion.  Nine  months  later  his  son 
Horace  wrote  of  him:  "  I  do  not  think  that  he  is  less  vigorous 
in  body  than  before  my  dear  mother's  death,  but  sometimes 
he  seems  so.  I  begged  him  to  come  up  with  my  sister  Susan, 
and  let  his  grandchildren  take  him  about  in  this  picturesque 
region  [the  Delaware  Water  Gap].  He  replied  that  though 
his  legs  were  pretty  good  for  his  years,  they  were  not  what 
they  had  been,  and  that  he  meant  to  stay  at  home  or  near 
home,  and  prepare  his  wings.  The  words  show  whither  his 
thoughts  are  constantly  winging.  I  perceive  no  difference 
in  the  activity  or  vigour  of  his  mind,  and  he  continues  to  take 
a  quiet  interest  in  national  politics." 

(To  Sir  J.  T.  Coleridge.) 

PHILADELPHIA,  28  February,  1866. 

I  cannot  tell  you  how  much  your  letter  of  26th  Dec.  affected  me. 
It  came  to  hand  only  on  the  24th  of  last  month.  Your  interest  in  my 
great  bereavement  was  soothing  to  all  my  family,  particularly  to  my 
daughters,  to  whom  I  imparted  your  letter ;  and  the  trouble  you  had 

395 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^T.  86 


taken  to  copy  for  me  the  affecting  memorial  of  his  wife,  by  Jones  of 
Nayland,  was  as  strong  a  proof  of  the  sympathy  you  felt,  and  of 
your  desire  to  turn  me  to  a  case  of  like  affliction,  remembered  and  sus 
tained  by  this  good  man  in  a  most  affectionate  as  well  as  Christian 
spirit,  as  I  could  have  received  from  a  brother.  I  thank  you  for  it, 
with  all  my  heart.  Jones  of  Nayland  is  well  known  here.  We  have 
esteemed  him  so  much  as  to  reprint  in  this  city  a  part  of  his  works,  all 
of  which  I  believe  are  accessible  to  me  in  our  City  Library;  but  his 
letter  to  Dr.  Glasse  was  not  previously  known  to  me.  In  several  re 
spects  I  could  follow  him  in  calling  up  the  characteristics  of  my  most 
pure,  loving,  and  beloved  wife.  I  have  not  at  this  time,  however,  the 
disciplined  and  composed  spirit  to  attempt  a  parallel  for  your  eye  ; 
but  if  you  will  imagine  a  union  of  nearly  sixty-two  years  —  and  for  a 
large  portion  of  that  time  you  can  have  no  difficulty  in  doing  it  —  of 
mutual  love  and  esteem,  cemented  on  the  wife's  side  by  as  sweet  a 
temper  as  was  ever  given  to  woman,  by  a  graceful  person  and  car 
riage,  and  by  a  most  wise  and  watchful  care  and  discretion  in  all  that 
regarded  the  education  and  principles  of  her  children  and  the  order 
of  her  household,  and  without  a  single  instance  in  all  that  period  in 
which  she  gave  cause  or  thought  of  reproach  to  any  one  in  the  relation 
of  husband,  child,  or  friend,  you  will  require  nothing  else  to  show  you 
what  a  grief  her  death  has  been  to  me.  I  strove  for  many  years  to 
dress  my  temper,  manners,  and  good  will  to  all  in  her  as  a  mirror,  and 
I  am  grateful  to  her  for  the  effect  of  it.  I  have  never  felt  from  any 
other  example  so  strongly  the  truth  and  the  consolation  of  St.  John's 
declaration  that,  "  If  we  love  one  another,  God  dwelleth  in  us,  and  His 
love  is  perfected  in  us.  Hereby  we  know  that  we  dwell  in  Him,  and 
He  in  us,  because  He  hath  given  us  of  His  Spirit."  Though  for  more 
than  six  years,  after  an  active,  temperate,  and  healthful  life  to  the 
age  of  seventy-six,  she  was  confined  to  her  couch  by  rheumatic  gout, 
and  was  deprived  of  hearing  except  thro'  a  trumpet,  neither  her  care 
for  her  family,  nor  her  interest  in  her  children  and  many  descendants, 
her  friends,  or  her  poor  connections  and  dependants,  ever  abated  a 
jot.  Her  beautiful  eyes  and  her  love  of  reading  and  the  composure 
of  her  mind  continued  without  change;  and  while  for  active  super- 

396 


1866]  DEATH    OF    MRS.  BINNEY 

intendence  her  place  was  necessarily  supplied  by  an  unmarried  daugh 
ter,  now  of  priceless  value  to  me,  yet  her  judgment,  her  accurate 
memory,  and  her  affections  continued  to  be  the  resort  for  consultation 
and  direction  to  the  last  month  of  her  life.  No  man,  I  think,  was  ever 
bound  to  a  wife  more  than  I  was  to  her ;  and  since  her  death  I  have 
in  twenty  instances  half -turned  to  that  empty  chair,  as  if  I  could 
again  refresh  or  assert  myself  by  that  communion  to  which  we  were  so 
much  accustomed.  I  hope  to  find  it  elsewhere.  I  know  that  I  must 
soon  follow  her ;  and  I  devoutly  wish  that  I  may  be  worthy  to  follow 
her.  I  cannot  trust  myself  to  record  for  you  the  touching  proofs,  in 
her  few  intervals  of  rest  during  the  last  fortnight,  when  signs  rather 
than  words  had  to  pass  from  us  to  her  in  response,  of  her  desire  to  be 
at  rest,  while  her  love  for  all  she  was  leaving  was  as  vivid  as  it  had 
ever  been,  and  of  her  only  wish  that  we  should  not  pray  for  her  con 
tinuance.  She  expressed  with  great  strength  her  confident  hope  of 
pardon  for  her  sins  from  the  mercy  of  God;  and  took  with  her  out 
of  life  the  same  loving  heart  with  which  she  had  lived  in  it  for  nearly 
eighty-three  years.  I  beg  you  to  excuse  me,  if  I  have  said  too  much. 

I  hope  it  will  be  agreeable  to  you  to  learn  that,  although  we  have 
had  a  rather  severe  winter,  and  of  course  a  very  retired  one,  my  health 
is  still  fair,  and  that  recently  I  have  been  able  to  resume  my  exercise 
on  foot,  so  necessary  to  the  continuance  and  enjoyment  of  it.  From 
your  remaining  so  late  at  Heath's  Court,  and  your  saying  nothing  in 
your  last  letter  about  your  removal  to  Torquay,  I  infer  that  your 
own  health  has  improved,  and  shall  be  glad  if  your  letters  shall  here 
after  confirm  it. 

You  will  learn  at  about  the  time  when  you  will  receive  this  that 
our  return  to  a  harmonious  Union  is  threatened  with  some  obstruction, 
by  a  difference  of  opinion  between  the  President  and  a  large  majority 
in  the  two  Houses  of  Congress.  It  has  appeared  formally  in  regard 
to  the  enlargement  of  the  powers  given  by  an  Act  of  Congress  during 
the  time  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  still  in  force;  but  from  the  President's 
declarations  at  a  public  meeting  in  Washington  the  difference  goes 
further.  His  veto  of  the  Freedman's  Bureau  Bill,  which  two-thirds 
of  the  Senate,  where  the  bill  originated,  did  not  suppress,  though  the 

397 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^ET.  86 


bill  had  passed  that  body  unanimously,  would  not  of  itself  have 
caused  the  sensation  which  has  ensued  ;  but  his  language  at  the  public 
meeting  was  in  a  high  degree  undignified  and  indiscreet.  Some  of  our 
papers  speak  of  it  as  a  repetition  of  the  scene  at  the  President's  inau 
guration  as  Vice-President.  Privately  I  have  heard  another  matter 
suggested,  —  an  unsound  condition  of  mind.  I  have  not  at  present  a 
decided  opinion  upon  the  merits  of  the  real  question,  —  the  immediate 
restoration  of  the  Southern  States  to  representation  in  Congress,  — 
further  than  this  :  that  I  am  clearly  of  opinion  that  some  amendment 
of  the  Constitution  ought  previously  to  be  made,  changing  the  present 
rule  of  representation,  which  would  augment  the  representative  num 
bers  of  those  States  by  the  whole  number  of  freemen,  blacks  included, 
after  the  census  of  1870.  There  are  members  in  both  houses,  some  of 
them  what  are  called  extremists,  who  would  institute  universal  suffrage 
and  let  all  freemen  count  without  regard  to  colour.  The  President  is 
the  other  way.  I  incline  to  leave  the  question  of  suffrage  to  the  States 
until  after  the  next  census,  perhaps  longer  ;  but  after,  say,  ten  years 
to  give  the  right  of  suffrage  to  every  freeman.  The  question  is  a 
very  difficult  one,  both  practically  and  theoretically;  and  so,  indeed, 
is  the  whole  question  of  securing  practical  freedom  to  the  late  slaves, 
now  constitutionally  free.  It  may  give  rise  to  fearful  parties.  My 
own  fear  is  that  it  will  bring  back  the  old  predominance  of  Democ 
racy,  which  you  know  I  do  not  like.  .  .  . 

(To  the  same.) 

PHILADELPHIA,  7  Aug.,  1866. 

I  am  thankful  to  you  for  your  letter  by  Dr.  Leeds,  and  par 
ticularly  for  the  copy  of  your  notices  of  Mr.  Keble  contained  in  the 
packet  to  my  son  ;  also  for  the  photograph,  which  seems  to  be  a  copy 
of  a  better  one  which  you  sent  me  in  Sept.,  1860,  and  which  since  its 
arrival  has  been  framed  and  is  suspended  in  one  of  my  offices  where 
I  habitually  sit.  .  .  . 

Your  notices  of  Mr.  Keble  are  most  interesting,  and  excellent 
in  all  points.  It  was  the  perusal  of  some  or  all  of  these  in  the  Guar 
dian  that  made  me  think,  and,  I  believe,  say,  in  a  recent  letter,  that 

398 


1866]  NEGRO    SUFFRAGE 

you  were  not  likely  to  approve  entirely  a  further  notice  or  life  of 
Keble,  written  by  another  person.  You  knew  him  so  long  and  well, 
and  loved  and  honoured  him  so  sincerely,  and  appear  to  have  so  well- 
defined  a  judgment  in  regard  to  his  qualities,  and  faculties,  and  withal 
so  careful  a  pen  in  your  account  of  him,  that  his  full  biography  by 
any  other  writer  must  be  an  extraordinary  one  to  satisfy  you.  I  have 
never  read  biographical  notices  of  any  one  that  pleased  me  in  all 
points  as  well  as  yours  of  Mr.  Keble.  The  good  taste  of  them  all  is 
as  striking  as  their  pure  affection  and  perfect  respect  for  their  sub 
ject.  But  I  am  never  to  know  him  better  in  this  life  than  I  do  by 
what  you  have  written  of  him. 

The  events  of  the  war  on  the  Continent  have  been  so  different 
from  the  general  expectation,  and  have  come  so  rapidly  upon  us,  that 
few  seem  ready  to  express  an  opinion  of  the  final  result.  It  will  be 
very  strange  if  England  shall  have  nothing  to  say  in  regard  to  what 
seems  to  portend  a  complete  change  in  the  conditions  of  such  States  as 
Austria  and  Prussia.  Perhaps  it  is  well  for  England  that  Lord 
Derby's  ministry  has  not  strength  enough  to  go  far  towards  inter 
vention,  if  there  should  be  an  inclination  for  it.  We  are  brought  up 
here,  you  know,  to  believe  that  if  a  people  are  strong  enough  to  take 
care  of  themselves,  alliances  and  even  very  close  and  intimate  relations 
with  other  governments  are  undesirable.  We  call  them  entangling, 
and  avoid  them.  Surely  if  any  nation  is  sufficiently  strong  for  this 
purpose,  it  is  England.  The  main  point  is  to  unite  her  own  people, 
and  to  content  them  reasonably  with  their  representation.  Whether 
she  will  be  able  to  do  this  is  the  great  question.  I  heartily  wish  that 
you  may  get  to  the  good  end  of  it,  if  there  is  one,  but  if  the  develop 
ment  of  the  political  mind  in  England  shall  resemble  what  it  seems 
to  be  approaching  in  religion,  according  to  some  accounts,  you  and  I 
may  deem  ourselves  fortunate  in  living  before  the  age  that  is  to  witness 
the  promised  improvement. 

We  shall  have  a  very  animated  canvass  for  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  in  the  next  autumn.  A  very  large  convention  is  to  take 
place  in  this  city  on  the  14th  instant.  It  will  consist  of  the  most 
prominent  men  from  all  parts  of  the  Union  who  wish  to  sustain  the 

399 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  86-87 

President.  In  the  beginning  of  September,  one  on  the  side  of  Con 
gress  will  meet  in  the  same  city.  And  from  these  we  shall  learn  the 
issues  we  are  to  decide  upon ;  and  the  coming  vote  will  probably  settle 
the  matter  for  a  couple  of  years.  But  although  I  take  no  part  in 
politics,  I  cannot  make  up  my  mind  on  either  side.  In  my  judgment 
there  is  wrong  and  right  on  either  side,  and  no  one  will  be  able  to 
separate  in  his  personal  action  the  wrong  from  the  right.  In  such  a 
case,  are  we  bound  by  sound  ethics  to  take  neither?  I  rather  think  I 
shall  try  to  quiet  my  conscience  by  voting  for  the  men  I  think  the 
best.  But  what  do  the  best  men  become  in  party  action?  .  .  . 

(To  the  same.) 

PHILADELPHIA,  22  Nov.,  1866. 

The  course  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  shortly  after 
I  received  your  penultimate  letter,  was  so  extraordinary  that  I  de 
ferred  writing  to  you  until  I  should  learn  the  result  of  the  elections 
that  were  to  follow !  and  now,  when  I  sit  down  to  give  you  a  short 
account  of  this,  I  am  gratified  by  receiving  another  letter  as  recent 
as  the  3d  of  this  month,  so  full  of  kind  remarks,  and  suggestive  of 
other  topics,  that  it  has  put  President  and  elections  pretty  much  out 
of  my  head.  I  may  say,  however,  in  regard  to  that  subject,  that 
while  the  President,  in  the  progress,  of  his  late  tour,  was  sometimes 
indecent,  and  always  unwise,  and  the  elections  have  answered  him 
with  all  but  unanimous  opposition,  I  have  some  fears  that  Congress 
may,  at  its  approaching  session  of  December,  imitate  his  violence  and 
attempt  his  removal  by  impeachment.  I  sincerely  hope  that  this  will 
not  happen.  Of  the  sufficiency  of  the  alleged  grounds  for  impeach 
ment  I  have  not  formed  an  opinion;  but  supposing  their  sufficiency, 
the  condition  of  the  nation,  the  incomplete  representation  of  the  Union 
in  Congress,  and  the  still  more  imperfect  provisions  of  the  Constitu 
tion  for  such  a  case,  together  with  the  excitement  which  the  impeach 
ment  will  produce,  make  the  prosecution  of  an  impeachment  most 
inexpedient.  What  is  especially  wanted,  in  rebuke  as  well  as  remedy 
for  the  alleged  excesses  of  the  President,  are  dignity  and  moderation 
with  firmness.  These,  I  think,  will  exonerate  the  people  from  any 

400 


1866-67]     PRESIDENT    JOHNSON'S    POLICY 

discredit  abroad,  through  the  conduct  of  the  President,  and  prove  a 
sufficient  remedy  for  anything  he  has  already  done.  If  he  shall  posi 
tively  obstruct  the  operation  of  the  laws  of  Congress,  another  remedy 
may  be  required ;  but  I  have  not  the  least  fear,  nor  do  I  learn  that 
any  one  has,  of  the  application  of  military  force  to  the  case  on  either 
side.  The  character  of  the  American  soldier,  as  well  as  the  nature 
of  the  controversy,  is  supposed  to  make  such  a  recourse  impossible. 
In  a  few  weeks  we  shall  be  better  able  to  judge  of  the  whole  matter; 
but  I  cannot  omit  writing  in  the  mean  while.  .  .  . 

Reform  threatens  you,  and  I  suppose  will  continue  to  do  so  for 
an  indefinite  time.  I  should  like  to  ask  an  English  reformer,  of  the 
most  moderate  and  reflecting  character,  whether  he  has  fixed  in  his 
own  mind  a  limit,  and  what  it  is ;  and  if  he  has  fixed  such  a  limit,  I 
would  ask  him  to  prove  that  England  would  and  could  stop  at  that 
limit.  If  he  could  not  prove  this,  I  should  say  reform  will  have  no 
end,  but  a  change  of  government.  Universal  suffrage  means  universal 
power  of  the  people,  in  their  totality  as  numbers  merely,  to  do  what 
they  please  with  their  government.  Mr.  Bright,  I  suppose,  means 
revolution. 

My  son  Horace  thanks  you  for  your  kind  remembrances  in  your 
last  letter.  He  is  as  good  a  son  as  lives,  and  wanting  in  no  quality 
that  is  necessary  to  his  father's  happiness. 

May  I  beg  you  to  present  to  Lady  Coleridge  my  sincere  and 
affectionate  respects.  I  assure  her  that  there  is  as  little  formality  in 
this  as  I  trust  and  believe  there  is  in  the  kind  messages  which  your 
letters  have  more  than  once  conveyed  to  me  of  like  nature  in  her  behalf. 

(To  the  same.) 

PHILADELPHIA,  18th  April,  1867. 

I  am  grieved  to  learn  from  your  letter  of  25th  March  that  you 
have  been  ill ;  and  only  something  less  so,  that  since  the  pressure  of 
your  attack  has  passed  away  you  have  been  put  upon  a  short  allow 
ance  as  to  reading  and  writing.  If  your  illness  was  attributable  in 
any  of  its  symptoms  to  an  overworked  brain,  nothing  could  be  more 
reasonable  than  the  limitation;  but  it  went  to  my  heart  to  learn 
26  401 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  87 

further,  that  perhaps  your  engagement  with  the  life  of  Mr.  Keble 
was  among  the  employments  which  led  to  these  symptoms.  Although 
you  appear  to  consider  that  as  only  seeming  overwork,  my  own  expe 
rience  would  lead  to  a  different  conclusion.  .  .  . 

I  don't  wonder  that  you  are  perplexed  by  American  politics, — 
the  politics  of  reconstruction.  It  is  not  easy  for  many  Americans, 
even  those  who  concur  in  the  main,  as  I  do,  with  the  measure  of  Con 
gress,  to  understand  and  approve  them.  It  may  surprise  you  to  hear 
that,  among  other  methods  of  overruling  the  Reconstruction  Act, 
recently  passed  over  the  President's  veto,  leave  has  been  asked  of  the 
Supreme  Court  by  more  than  one  of  the  late  seceding  States,  to 
file  bills  to  enjoin  the  President  not  to  execute  the  Act  because  it  was 
unconstitutional.  The  President  himself  directed  the  Attorney-Gen 
eral  to  oppose  the  petitions;  and  after  argument,  the  Court  refused 
the  leave.  I  do  not  hear  of  any  dissent  among  the  Judges.  In  conse 
quence  of  the  division,  5  to  4,  on  the  constitutionality  of  the  Test 
Oath  and  of  the  Military  Commission,  this  plan  of  filing  bills  of 
injunction  has  probably  been  attempted  to  draw  the  Court  into  the 
ranks  of  opposition  against  Congress.  It  will  be  equally  bad  for  the 
court  and  the  country  if  they  should  succeed  upon  any  grounds  that 
are  not  perfectly  firm. 

I  cannot  help  expressing  to  you  my  opinion  that  the  President 
himself  has  been  the  voluntary  cause  of  the  rather  ominous  aspect  of 
this  question  of  reconstruction.  Without  a  shadow  of  authority  that 
I  can  perceive  in  the  Constitution,  he  assumed  to  do  the  whole  work 
of  reconstruction  himself.  When  the  Southern  armies  surrendered, 
and  his  power  as  commander-in-chief  became  almost  null,  and  his 
executive  power  wholly  inadequate  to  the  work  of  either  treaty  making 
or  legislation,  he  did  not  convene  either  House,  but  went  on,  veils 
levatis,  as  if  there  had  been  but  one  power  in  the  land,  to  determine 
all  the  new  relations  that  had  been  produced  between  the  seceded 
States  and  the  Union  by  the  abolition  of  slavery,  by  the  abandonment 
of  all  the  former  constitutions  of  the  States  on  their  own  part,  and 
by  the  forcible  overthrow  and  extinction  of  all  the  new  ones  they  had 
adopted.  This  was  the  origin  of  our  present  difficulty.  He  con- 

403 


1867]     PRESIDENT   JOHNSON'S    POLICY 

nected  with  this  usurpation  a  policy — his  policy  he  called  it — which 
flattered  the  Southern  people,  and  intensified,  if  it  did  not  even  breathe 
life  into,  the  hope  of  the  South,  then  apparently  extinct,  to  gain  by 
restoration  a  position  in  the  Union  from  which  they  could  renew  their 
opposition  to  the  Union.  I  have  always  sympathized  deeply  with 
the  desire  of  the  ruling  party  in  Congress  to  defeat  this  policy,  and 
to  put  an  end  forever  to  all  attempts  to  restore  slavery,  either  in 
form  or  substance,  or  to  administer  the  government  in  such  a  manner 
as  would  prepare  another  secession.  I  need  not  express  any  opinion 
of  the  President  personally.  I  shall,  if  I  live,  rejoice  to  see  him  leave 
the  office,  to  such  peace  and  obscurity  as  he  will  find  at  the  end  of  his 
strange  career. 

As  to  your  questions  of  reform,  I  fear  you  will  have  them  re 
newed,  until  you  will  get  something  into  your  Constitution  that  will 
disturb  you  as  much  as  imperfect  or  incomplete  representation  does 
now.  My  hopes,  I  believe,  are  the  same  as  your  own. 

My  son  Horace  thanks  you  for  your  kind  message.  He  requests 
me  to  say  in  advance  of  what  he  may  write  you  at  another  day,  that 
the  course  of  some  persons  in  New  York  in  regard  to  the  Keble  me 
morial  has  given  him  the  labour  of  much  correspondence  and  vexation 
of  spirit.  The  alteration,  by  Mr.  Keble's  direction  to  his  executors, 
of  a  line,  indeed  a  small  word,  in  the  "  Thoughts  in  Verse"  on  the 
Gunpowder  Treason,  has  been  the  occasion  of  comments  which  greatly 
disturb  the  progress  of  the  memorial.  He  perseveres,  however,  and 
means  to  persevere ;  though  I  suppose  he  fears  that  what  shall  be  done 
in  Pennsylvania  will  be  done  without  concert  with  New  York. 

I  beg  you  to  inform  me  by  letter,  if  only  of  two  lines,  that  your 
health  improves.  I  do  not  ask  for  your  revisiting  the  life  of  Keble 
until  some  months  are  past;  but  I  shall  be  anxious  for  your  health 
till  I  hear  of  its  restoration. 

Give  my  best  regards  to  Lady  Coleridge  and  your  family.  I 
am  delighted  with  what  you  say  in  confirmation  of  what  I  learn 
from  other  sources  of  your  son's  high  and  lucrative  position  at  the 
bar.  His  course  in  Parliament  has  been  just  such  as  I  expected  it 

would  be. 

403 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  88 

(To  the  same.) 

PHILADELPHIA,  4  Nov.,  1868. 

I  renew  my  salutations  to  you  this  morning,  after  our  election 
yesterday  of  President  and  Vice-President,  resulting  in  the  choice  of 
Grant  and  Coif  ax  by  a  vast  majority.  The  morning's  paper  gives 
a  result  of  233  electoral  votes  for  Grant  and  Colfax  out  of  a  total 
of  296 ;  and  to  shew  the  power  of  the  telegraph,  the  editor  of  one  of 
the  gazettes  says  that  he  had  received  returns  during  the  last  night 
and  the  present  early  morning  from  every  State  in  the  Union  but 
three. 

I  am  tranquillized  at  present  by  this  result ;  for  a  more  danger 
ous  combination  than  that  which  was  opposed  to  Grant  and  Colfax 
it  is  impossible  to  conceive;  the  worst  certainly  that  in  my  long  life 
I  have  known.  It  not  only  threatened  a  new  rebellion,  but,  in  prepara 
tion  for  it,  the  ruin  of  the  public  credit  and  the  utter  prostration  of 
public  morality. 

The  complete  failure  of  so  flagrant  a  conspiracy  tranquillizes 
me,  therefore,  for  the  time,  and  the  peace  which  it  promises  for  a 
few  years  to  come  would  suffice  for  my  time,  if  I  looked  no  further 
ahead;  but  the  cause,  to  which  I  have  often  referred  in  previous 
letters,  as  likely  to  rule  the  condition  of  government  in  this  nation, 
still  remains  at  work,  and  will  at  no  distant  day  recover  its  influence 
and  restore  the  sway  of  democratic  government  of  the  worst  kind. 
The  North  and  the  South  will  never  have  the  same  public  interests, 
either  foreign  or  domestic.  They  will  continue  to  be  divided  from 
each  other  in  every  way  but  one, — the  wish  and  the  ability  to  combine 
for  the  purpose  of  ruling  the  national  government ;  and  they  cannot 
do  this  with  success,  except  by  a  union  of  the  worst  sections  of  Democ 
racy  in  the  North  with  the  false  and  hypocritical  oligarchy  of  the 
South.  When  I  say  never,  I  ought  perhaps  to  say  for  a  long  time. 
But  the  spontaneousness  with  which,  after  such  a  rebellion,  they  have 
come  into  such  a  combination  as  [at]  the  recent  election,  shews  an 
elective  affinity  deeply  seated,  though  of  a  very  strange  kind.  How 
ever,  I  will  say  no  more  of  our  politics. 

404 


1868]     ELECTION    OF   PRESIDENT   GRANT 

Tho'  I  am  your  debtor  in  every  way,  I  have  desired  much  to  hear 
of  your  health  during  the  last  semestre.  Your  son  is  often  before  me 
in  the  newspapers,  or  in  blue-books;  and  if  he  is  doing  as  well  in 
health  as  in  professional  and  public  service,  it  should  satisfy  his  father, 
as  well  as  his  friends.  But  my  sympathy  is  more  naturally  with  you, 
and  my  longing  has  been  in  this  direction.  If  it  does  not  interfere 
with  your  convenience,  or  the  advice  of  your  physician,  let  me  have 
a  short  letter  to  inform,  and  I  hope  relieve  me ;  and  if  you  can  say  a 
word  about  the  Memoir  of  Mr.  Keble,  the  more  pleasant  will  be  the 
relief,  as  it  will  shew  that  your  work  is  accomplished,  and  my  life 
perhaps  not  too  far  spent  to  enjoy  the  fruit. 

My  course  of  life  in  the  summer  and  autumn  seems  to  promote 
the  kind  of  health  which  is  allotted  to  my  old  age, — not  vigorous  in 
the  proper  sense,  rarely  permitting  considerable  effort,  but  rarely  or 
never  calling  for  medical  advice,  enjoying  a  fair  appetite,  exempt 
from  every  pain  of  body,  a  very  fair  sleeper,  and  sufficiently  indiffer 
ent  to  our  hot  weather.  I  drive  from  town  to  country  during  the 
summer,  dividing  my  week  between  the  city  and  the  fields,  and  taking 
from  my  daughter's  family  of  eleven  children,  more  perhaps  than 
from  the  healthful  air,  the  animation  and  spirits  which  are  so  con 
ducive  to  equable  health.  I  really  want  nothing,  now  that  the  political 
battle  of  the  day  has  been  fought  and  well  won,  but  to  see  you,  to 
hear  you,  to  feel  your  hand,  and  to  look  into  your  eyes.  But  the 
photograph  which  hangs  before  me  is  all  that  I  shall  see  of  you  here. 
I  think  it  is  not  a  bad  wish  for  me,  that  I  may  see  you  hereafter,  face 
to  face. 

In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Hamilton,  written  on  November  21, 
Mr.  Binney  said,  "  So  far  as  bodily  health  is  concerned  I 
am  about  as  well  as  a  month  ago,  and  much  better  in  regard 
to  ease  of  mind  on  the  probable  events  of  the  future  four 
years  of  our  country.  The  election  of  Grant  has  quieted 
many  fears,  and  has  inspired  great  thankfulness  for  the  cer 
tain  departure  from  office  and  influence  of  Johnson  next 
spring."  This  feeling  of  satisfaction,  however,  did  not  blind 


405 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  88-89 

him  to  a  less  pleasing  feature  of  the  election,  an  evil  which 
has  of  late  become  more  serious  in  Philadelphia  than  it  was 
in  1868,  so  that  his  words  of  warning  might  well  be  repeated 
to-day. 

Unless  [he  went  on  to  say]  we  take  the  lesson  which  the  frauds 
and  violence  of  the  last  election  teach  us  to  our  very  hearts  and  souls, 
now  and  constantly  onward,  to  kill  and  not  simply  to  scotch  this  ter 
rible  anaconda,  our  election  rights,  which  is  to  say,  all  our  political 
rights,  in  no  long  time  will  be  as  worthless  as  a  mess  of  pottage.  Tell 
your  Union  League  not  to  pause,  nor  put  off  to  another  election,  the 
efforts  which  the  evil  demands.  It  involves  not  merely  public  faith, 
but  private  property  and  both  public  and  private  liberty.  It  must 
convert  all  laws  into  one,  the  law  of  force,  unless  the  best  part  of  this 
nation  means  to  be  trodden  under  foot  by  the  worst.  Now  and  to 
morrow  and  the  next  day  and  continually  the  friends  of  honest  and 
upright  government  must  not  only  be  awake,  but  stirring.  The  course 
ought  to  be  to  expose  and  lay  open  the  frauds  and  violence  to  the 
bottom,  though  no  hope  of  immediate  relief  shall  come  in  any  case. 
We  should  search  and  go  to  the  quick  in  every  case,  by  either  party. 
I  do  not  say  I  hope,  but  I  think  I  know  that  there  is  no  other  mode 
but  instant,  constant,  and  continued  exposure.  This  I  have  said  here, 
and  shall  say  so  to  the  last. 

(To  Sir  J.  T.  Coleridge.) 

PHILADELPHIA,  4  April,  1869. 

Neither  am  I  going  to  write  you  a  letter  just  now,  having  done 
more  than  enough,  in  my  double  sheet  in  February.  Nevertheless  I 
feel  as  if  I  were  loaded  and  primed  for  another  salvo  to  express  the 
honour  and  thanks  I  owe  you  for  your  charming  memoir.1  In  all 
sincerity  I  think  it  the  most  effective  and  best  biographical  work  I 
have  ever  read.  My  son  Horace  thinks  the  same  for  himself.  I  do 
not  know  when  I  can  get  it  out  of  his  hands  again  for  another  reading. 


1  Of  the  Rev.  John  Keble. 

406 


1868-69]     COLERIDGE'S    LIFE    OF    KEBLE 

He  says  he  keeps  it  for  his  Sunday  reading;  and  I  agree  it  is  very 
good  for  that.  But  he  would  have  done  better  for  me  if  he  had  fol 
lowed  my  plan  of  putting  together  a  week  of  Sundays,  and  reading 
it  twice.  It  would  have  had  a  third  and  perhaps  a  fourth  reading  by 
me  before  this  time.  All  concur  in  its  praise,  I  see,  on  your  side  of  the 
water, — high,  broad,  and  low,  with  just  such  preferences  as  make 
the  harmony  richer.  One  at  least  of  your  critics  agrees  with  me  in 
thinking  that  it  is  as  good  a  portrait  of  yourself  as  it  is  of  Keble. 
But  I  say  no  more  of  this  just  now.  I  confess  I  am  not  glad  that 
Keble's  letters  to  Froude  have  been  found  and  sent  to  you.  Keble 
wants  nothing,  I  think,  that  is  likely  to  be  obtained  for  him  from 
that  source ;  and  perhaps  there  may  be  a  little  more  of  his  severity  to 
recusants  in  his  letter  to  a  brother  enlisted  in  the  same  war.  However, 
Keble  and  Froude  may  be  trusted  safely  with  you  and  you  with 
them.  I  hope  the  letters  will  not  aggravate  the  labour  of  the  new 
edition.  .  .  . 

(To  the  same.) 

PHILADELPHIA,  16  July,  1869. 

If  I  had  written  to  you  as  often  as  I  have  thought  of  you  since 
I  received  and  read  and  re-read  your  memoir  of  Mr.  Keble,  I  should 
have  heard  the  groans  of  the  post-office,  tho'  I  should  not  have  heard 
yours ;  for  I  have  learned  from  that  memoir,  I  think,  that  you  are  a 
person  who  does  not  groan  audibly  under  any  weight ;  a  great  comfort 
to  me,  when  I  find  this  in  a  correspondent.  I  learned  that  among 
other  things  from  that  book,  which  will  be  precious  to  me  while  I  live ; 
the  sum  of  all,  in  one  aspect,  being,  that  there  will  never  be  so  good 
a  biography  of  you  as  you  have  written  of  yourself  in  that  work, 
without  using  a  word  to  that  end  purposely.  I  might  better  say 
"  portrait"  than  "  biography."  The  biography  will  say  more  of  you, 
and  more  particularly;  but  it  will  say  nothing  truly,  which  some  of 
your  features  in  the  Memoir  do  not  express  with  perhaps  more  per 
suasive  truth,  and  with  a  resemblance  that  will  strike  better  than  any 
description.  You  are,  according  to  my  notion,  the  happiest  author  of 
my  time,  to  have  written,  out  of  unprepared  materials,  and  after  no 
serious  study,  the  most  pleasing  and  popular  memoir  of  the  whole 

407 


HORACE    BINNEY  [Mi.  89 

century,  at  an  age  when  you  thought  your  writing  faculties  were 
gone.  All  my  children  have  read  it.  I  have  read  it  three  times,  and 
parts  of  it  a  fourth,  in  the  second  edition;  and  we  are  all  of  one 
mind,  that  it  is  entirely  felicitous,  both  in  its  scope,  as  you  assumed 
it,  and  in  its  execution,  and  that  no  one  ever  succeeded  better  in 
making  everybody  love  his  friend  as  much  and  as  justly  as  he  loved 
him  himself.  If  this  praise  is  disagreeable  to  you,  I  must  beg  your 
pardon;  but  I  do  not  see  why  it  should  be,  for  it  has  not  the  least 
particle  of  insincerity  in  it,  and  is,  moreover,  the  only  return  we  can 
make  for  your  care  for  us  in  the  preparation  of  the  book. 

You  will  not  object,  however,  to  a  word  or  two  of  more  direct 
praise  from  me  of  what  I  think  was  Mr.  Keble's  most  striking  attain 
ment.  My  opinion  is  not  altogether  derived  from  your  Memoir, 
though  the  Memoir  verifies  and  confirms  it.  It  scarcely  comprehends 
his  classical  and  theological  learning.  I  am  incompetent  to  judge  it. 
Nor  does  his  poetical  imagination  enter  into  it,  though  I  have  loved 
the  "  Christian  Year"  since  I  first  read  it,  and  love  almost  all  of  his 
verses  in  the  "  Lyra  Apostolica"  and  most  of  his  "  Lyra  Innocentium," 
and  several  of  them,  not  all,  in  a  collection  of  his  poems  made  since 
his  death.  Indeed,  if  I  had  been  the  collector,  I  would  have  omitted 
a  few  that  the  anonymous  collector  has  published.  None  of  these 
excellences  are  in  my  view  when  I  am  thinking  of  his  greatest  charac 
teristic.  It  is  his  religious  faith,  and  of  the  right  kind,  I  mean,  proved 
by  his  works.  This  thought  of  him,  as  a  distinction,  came  to  me  when 
I  was  reading  his  Parochial  Sermons ;  and  it  is  corroborated  by  many 
of  his  personal  habits,  which  I  need  not  advert  to.  But  all  Scripture 
is,  with  him,  written  by  inspiration  of  God.  He  does  not  make  any 
argument  for  it,  nor,  as  I  recollect  to  have  met,  any  assertion  of  it; 
but  you  see  it  in  almost  everything  that  he  writes,  without  his  saying 
it.  Whether  the  going  back  of  the  sun  upon  the  dial,  or  the  parting 
of  the  waters  of  Jordan,  or  any  other  miraculous  event  recorded  in 
the  Old  Testament,  he  speaks  of  it,  dwells  upon  it,  or  applies  it  with 
as  much  assurance  of  its  truth  as  he  would  manifest  in  speaking  of 
what  he  had  seen  with  his  own  eyes.  He  undoubtedly  so  received  and 
held  it  as  infallible  or  very  truth.  And  this  degree  and  kind  of  faith, 

408 


1869]      COLERIDGE'S    LIFE    OF    KEBLE 

I  regard  as  an  inestimable  blessing  to  the  people  to  whom  such  a  man 
preaches  and  ministers.  I  have  long  thought  that  the  reason  why  so 
many  persons  of  good  lives  held  back  from  the  profession  and  practice 
of  our  faith,  is  that  they  know  or  hear  of  so  many  persons  of  good 
understanding  who  doubt.  Doubt  is  contagious, — very, — more  so,  I 
think,  than  the  cholera.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  faith,  the  deep, 
habitual  faith  of  any  man,  but  most  especially  of  a  man  thoroughly 
versed  in  the  Scriptures  as  Keble  was, 'reflected  in  his  whole  life,  and 
even  at  times  in  his  very  silence  when  the  subject  is  broached  or 
touched  unnecessarily,  or  by  his  distress  when  brought  in  irreverently 
or  loosely,  is  even  more  contagious.  There  is  a  wholesome  fear  that 
helps  it,  which  doubt  has  not.  I  have  never  read  any  sermons  which 
gave  me  more  comfort  than  these,  while  they  make  no  literary  or  theo 
logical  display.  They  were  written  to  make  people,  simple  people, 
believe;  and  they  must  have  that  effect  upon  all  minds,  simple  or 
cultivated,  disposed  to  believe.  Excuse  me  for  saying  so  much  of  the 
book  you  were  so  good  as  to  recommend  to  me. 

There  is  nothing  on  this  side  of  the  water  worth  knowing  that 
you  do  not  probably  know,  through  your  own  papers,  as  well  as  I  do. 
I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  I  shall  not  be  satisfied  with  things 
in  our  government  while  I  live,  and  therefore  I  do  not  look  much  into 
them.  I  do  not  see  that  we  have  great  intellectual  power,  or  what  is 
called  statesmanship,  in  our  present  administration ;  but  I  have  some 
confidence,  and  not  a  little  in  the  President's  integrity  or  fairness  of 
purpose,  in  regard  to  all  public  concerns.  Our  parties  are  wild,  and 
will  be  so  after  the  Indians  shall  have  been  tamed  or  killed.  I  do  not 
believe  that  Mr.  Sumner's  speech  has  set  our  people  wild  on  the  sub 
ject  of  our  claims  upon  England;  particularly  not  the  Cabinet.  I 
suppose  there  will  be  little  attempt  to  renew  negotiations  until  the 
public  mind  in  England  is  to  some  degree  discharged  of  the  Church 
question.  Our  Cabinet  I  think  is  quite  right  as  to  Cuba,  and  I  believe 
are  more  likely  to  be  right  in  regard  to  all  other  matters  than  any 
Cabinet  headed  by  Mr.  Seward,  to  whom  I  never  was  able  to  give 
much  confidence.  He  was  more  of  a  politician  than  of  a  statesman. 
Fish  may  not  be  in  some  points  as  able,  but  he  is  thought  to  be  safer. 

409 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  89-90 

I  hope  and  believe  that  there  will  be  a  good  and  sure  settlement 
between  yourselves  and  us.  You  ought  not  to  have  been  surprised 
by  the  rejection  of  Johnson's  treaty.  It  would  have  been  to  me  a 
strange  thing  if,  in  the  high  tide  of  party  here,  a  Republican  Senate 
would  have  allowed  such  a  President  as  we  had,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
negotiator  and  his  dinner  speeches,  to  get  the  credit  of  any  treaty 
with  England,  whether  it  would  or  would  not  have  settled  matters. 
The  better  and  certainly  the  safer  course  would  have  been  to  have 
kept  off  the  negotiation,  until  after  the  election  of  the  new  President. 

We  have  intensely  hot  weather  upon  us.  Thermometer  in  my 
cool  office,  with  pretty  large  open  garden  and  much  shade,  at  87°  ; 
but  it  is  now  1.20  P.M.  My  daughter  and  my  son's  family  are  at 
Newport.  Too  cool  generally  in  summer,  for  me;  or  rather  too 
electric  or  non-electric.  I  never  was  sufficiently  warm  there.  I  am  in 
the  country  ten  miles  off,  with  one  of  my  daughters  and  her  eleven 
children,  all  good  children,  three  or  four  days  in  the  week.  There  is 
my  restorer  of  anything  that  the  rest  of  the  week  here  wears  or  wastes 
away.  And  that  is  very  little.  The  native  air  is  still  good  for  me, 
and  my  health  at  eighty-nine  and  a  half  very  comfortable. 

I  hope,  my  dear  friend,  that  yours  is  so,  and  may  long  be  so. 
You  have  earned  it,  better  than  I  have. 

Present  if  you  please  my  respectful  regards  to  Lady  Coleridge, 
and  to  your  son,  the  Solicitor-General,  and  his ;  and  say  that  I  really 
think  I  am  a  "  loving  old  man,"  for  I  love  those  who  are  loved  by  those 
I  love,  whether  they  permit  me  or  not ;  but  that  I  do  not  pretend  to 
be  half  as  "  wise"  as  the  word  gives  me  out  for.2 

(To  Dr.  S.  A.  Allibone.) 

4  January,  1870. 

1  thank  you  with  sincerity  for  your  kind  felicitations.     How  I 
have  walked  or  crept  up  to  ninety  passes  my  comprehension.     With 

2  This  refers  to  a  passage  in  the  Memoir,  where  Sir  John  had  written,  apropos 
of  certain  American  admirers  of  Mr.  Keble,  "  I  have  the  great  honour  to  count 
among  my  friends,  only  through  the  medium  of  a  long  and  intimate  correspond 
ence   (for  we  have  never  met),  that  wise  and  loving-hearted  old  man,  Horace 
Binney,  the  great  citizen  of  Philadelphia." 

410 


1869-70]  LATER    YEARS 

little  or  no  care  of  health,  often  exposing  it,  never  making  a  cosset 
of  it,  eating,  drinking,  like  my  companions,  with  early  or  late  hours, 
as  pleasure  or  work  required,  I  have  got  on;  and  after  this  dream  of 
so  many  years,  wake  pretty  fresh  to  the  fact  that  they  are  all  gone  and 
have  produced  little  fruit.  If  there  is  any  secret  in  my  endurance, 
I  rather  think  it  lies  in  my  not  taking  long  steps  at  any  time,  or  in 
any  kind  of  progression ;  and  I  have  no  similitude  in  any  wood  of  the 
forest  except  it  may  be  barren  oak,  a  capital  wood  to  last,  and  not 
bad  to  burn,  but  I  think  producing  nothing  better  than  few  and  small 
acorns.  I  am  not  at  all  proud  of  them. 

One  of  the  greatest  wonders  of  my  time  is  how  I  got  into  your 
"  Dictionary  of  Authors."  But  there  is  one  truth,  to  which  my  long 
life  has  given  as  much  emphasis  as  almost  to  any  other  of  my  expe 
rience.  Marriage  and  friendship,  birth  and  death,  health  and  sickness, 
promotion  and  neglect,  and,  in  general,  good  and  evil  are  prodigiously 
affected  by  what  is  almost  the  greatest  of  accidents, — proximity, 
nearness  in  point  of  distance,  to  the  promoting,  formulating,  or  deter 
mining  cause.  My  real  friend  on  the  matter  of  longevity  (if  it  be  a 
good)  was  my  proximity  to  a  place  for  superb  health  for  four  years 
from  eight  to  twelve,  and  thence  from  twelve  to  eighteen  to  another 
place  for  like  benefit  to  body  and  mind,  both  in  the  country,  the  first 
near  and  the  next  two  degrees  north  of  my  native  spot,  which  was 
within  gunshot  of  my  present  residence  in  Fourth  Street.  But  the 
motive  cause  of  each  country  change  was  proximity  to  my  family. 
So  in  many  others  of  the  most  material  events  of  my  life.  So  also, 
though  not  for  me,  nor  for  you,  perhaps,  likewise,  I  have  got  as  an 
author  into  your  most  capital  dictionary;  so  far  as  I  have  gone  in 
my  delectation  in  the  only  volume  yet  published ;  the  only  thing  that 
can  challenge  the  quotation, — 

*'  The  thing  we  know  is  neither  great  nor  rare, 
We  wonder  how  the  d— 1  it  got  there." 

Proximity  has  done  me  that  good  or  ill,  and  it  has  done  me  a 
good  many  other  services  or  disservices  of  various  kinds. 
Do  not  think  that  this  is  mock  modesty. 

411 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^ET.  90 


I  want  to  live  to  see  your  forthcoming  volumes,  and  to  possess 
to  the  last  the  eyesight  to  master  the  necessarily  small  type. 

Towards  the  end  of  January  Mr.  Binney's  oldest  son, 
then  just  sixty-one  years  old,  and  up  to  that  time  in  seem 
ingly  good  health,  was  seized  with  a  sudden  illness,  from 
which,  after  a  partial  rally,  he  died  on  February  3.  This 
loss  of  a  son  whom  he  not  only  deeply  loved,  and  who  de 
served  such  love  if  any  son  ever  did,  but  whose  strong  char 
acter  and  clear  intelligence  were  as  a  firm  staff  to  the  father 
in  his  great  age,  was  indeed  a  crushing  blow.  It  would  have 
caused  no  surprise  had  it  proved  too  much  for  his  own  hold 
upon  life,  but  his  extraordinary  vitality  being  matched  by 
abiding  faith  and  perfect  resignation,  he  was  able  to  bear 
up  without  apparent  diminution  of  either  bodily  or  mental 
vigour.  In  fact,  although  his  son's  death  threw  upon  him 
certain  professional  duties  which  he  would  otherwise  have 
escaped,  he  was  able  to  perform  them  without  serious  injury. 

The  death  of  Horace  Binney,  Jr.,  removed  the  one 
man  who,  as  far  as  intimate  personal  knowledge  went,  would 
have  been  the  best  fitted  to  prepare  some  record  of  his 
father's  life  whenever  the  time  for  such  a  work  should  come. 
Those  friends  who  were  anxious  that  there  should  be  such  a 
record  seem  to  have  brought  before  Mr.  Binney  the  question 
of  a  literary  executor,  if  not  biographer,  as  the  next  letter 
indicates. 

(To  Dr.  S.  A.  Allibone.) 

245  S.  FOURTH,  March  1,  1870. 

I  regretted  not  to  be  able  to  see  you  with  Mr.  Winthrop;  but 
I  have  been  partly  indemnified  by  reading  his  beautiful  eulogy  upon 
Mr.  Peabody. 

Your  sympathy  in  my  still  fresh  and  grievous  affliction  is  very 
grateful  to  me.  I  have  received  so  many  evidences  of  like  feeling 

412 


1870]     DEATH    OF    HORACE    BINNEY,  JR. 

from  persons  known  and  unknown  to  me,  that  the  reversal  of  the 
general  course  of  nature,  and  so  unexpectedly  and  strikingly  in  this 
instance,  seems  to  have  made  an  intensive  impression  upon  those  who 
have  known  the  name  and  relation. 

What  my  dear  son  would  have  attempted  from  his  filial  love,  had 
he  survived  me,  I  cannot  say.  It  is  no  aggravation  of  his  loss  that 
his  deep  affection  for  myself  and  all  my  family  will  not  now  mislead 
him.  As  to  my  own  provision  for  what  you  are  so  obliging  as  to 
suggest,  it  is  now  still  more  remote  and  unwelcome  than  the  thought 
has  always  been;  though  your  own  aid  would  be  the  most  friendly 
that  I  could  find,  and  the  most  judicious,  were  it  not  required  to  be 
creative.  Whenever  I  have  been  invited  to  think  of  the  subject,  I 
have  been  saved  by  one  vanity  from  falling  into  a  more  dangerous 
one.  I  think  myself  too  good  a  judge  of  books  to  be  misled  by  the 
vanity  of  thinking  that  anything  I  have  written  is  worth  preserving 
in  a  more  permanent  form  than  I  have  hitherto  given  to  it. 

You  will  permit  me,  however,  thus  to  close  my  note,  after  as 
suring  you  that  I  am, 
Dear  sir, 

Faithfully  and  cordially  yours, 

HOE:  BINNEY. 

(To  Sir  J.  T.  Coleridge.) 

PHILADELPHIA,  14  April,  1870. 

You  have  been  very  considerate  in  writing  me  two  or  three  times 
since  I  informed  you  of  my  great  bereavement;  and  very  fortunate 
has  it  been  for  me,  as  I  could  not  have  entitled  myself  to  the  favour 
by  my  own  letters,  as  I  have  been  pretty  much  under  a  medical  inter 
dict  against  reading  or  writing  since  the  middle  of  March,  or  when 
I  received  and  answered  a  very  kind  letter  from  the  Solicitor-General. 
The  cause  of  the  restriction  upon  me  was  overwork,  imposed  upon  me 
by  the  death  of  my  son, — work  which  was  indispensably  necessary  to 
be  done,  and  which  no  one  could  do  for  me,  for  it  was  the  getting 
back  into  my  own  consciousness  the  affairs  and  accounts  of  an  im 
portant  trust  for  two  French  ladies  in  Paris,  daughters  of  a  gentle 
man  in  this  city,  of  whose  wiU  I  was  the  surviving  executor.  The 

413 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^T.  90-92 


trust  was  created  by  his  will,  and  after  I  had  settled  his  estate,  and 
held  the  trust  alone  until  I  was  seventy,  my  son  was  at  my  request 
made  a  trustee,  and  to  him  I  had  committed  everything  for  twenty 
years,  looking  to  his  conclusion  of  it  as  survivor. 

You  cannot  imagine  the  distress  this  duty  of  settling  and  closing 
the  trust  myself  brought  upon  me,  until  at  length  the  sympathy 
between  my  digestion  and  my  brain  brought  on  some  symptoms  which 
alarmed  my  children  and  placed  me  under  the  orders  of  my  good 
family  physician.  Thank  God  !  the  accounts  are  all  ready  for  settle 
ment  and  the  appointment  of  a  successor,  and  the  symptoms  have 
abated  so  much  that  I  am  partially  restored  to  my  old  liberty,  and 
hope  the  opening  spring  will  emancipate  me  as  much  as  so  old  a  person 
can  be.  ... 

I  have  not  read  Dilke's  "  Greater  Britain,"  nor  has  it,  I  think, 
received  much  notice  in  our  best  literary  paper,  The  Nation.  I  must 
say  that  since  De  Tocqueville's  book,  I  have  read  few  English  or 
French  books  on  this  country.  In  general  they  are  entitled  to  little 
confidence,  and  as  little  in  praise  as  in  dispraise.  De  Tocqueville  was 
a  rare  man.  He  knew  something  before  he  began  to  describe  our 
institutions.  Modern  travellers  in  this  country  get  their  facts  and 
make  their  meditations  as  they  travel,  and  without  shaking  them 
down  into  place  or  out  of  place,  which,  as  to  many  of  them,  would  be 
better. 

My  paper  is  at  an  end,  and  I  must  stop.  My  head,  moreover, 
spins  a  little.  I  rather  think,  my  dear  friend,  that  I  have  received  a 
wound  which  is  immedicable  here;  but  I  have  resolved  to  complain 
of  nothing,  since  I  have  received  infinitely  more  in  this  life  than  I  can 
repay  by  my  best  behaviour. 

My  kind  regards  to  Lady  Coleridge.  May  God  bless  you  both 
and  all. 

(To  Dr.  S.  A.  Allibone.) 

7  January,  1871. 

I  thank  you  for  your  kind  enquiry.  My  health  is  fully  as  good 
as  it  ought  to  be  at  ninety-one;  and  whether  it  be  or  not,  I  am  content 
and  thankful.  Mere  age,  however  little  of  itself,  seems  to  be  regarded 

414 


1870-72]  LATER    YEARS 

by  the  world  as  a  merit,  or  an  achievement,  whereas  it  is  not  either  one 
or  the  other.  Of  the  men  you  name,  age  is  the  least  of  their  dis 
tinctions;  and  altho'  they  lived  to  nearly  the  same  age,  their  merits 
were  of  very  different  kinds  and  degrees.  My  impression  is,  that  the 
fame  of  Lord  Mansfield  will  last  longer  than  any  of  them.  He  was 
in  my  opinion  the  author  of  English  Commercial  Law,  and  he  pro 
duced  an  excellent  system  with  very  little  aid  from  any  other  quarter. 
He  was,  moreover,  a  statesman,  orator,  and  accomplished  man  of 
letters.  There  is  no  point  of  comparison,  that  I  know  of,  between 
Mansfield  and  Kenyon.  Kenyon  had  little  that  was  great  or  very 
distinguished  in  any  department.  Eldon  was  a  great  equity  lawyer 
and  judge,  and,  I  suppose,  a  very  good  common  lawyer,  while  Mansfield 
was  very  little  of  the  one,  and  was  surpassed  by  many  in  the  other. 
Lord  Stowell  was  a  great  admiralty  lawyer;  and  I  know  him  in  no 
other  department.  His  brother  Lord  Eldon's  old  age,  retained  his 
faculties  much  better  than  Lord  Stowell,  but  Lord  Stowell  was  thought 
to  be  much  more  generally  accomplished.  I  do  not  mean  by  these 
remarks  to  make  a  comparison  between  any  of  these  eminent  men,  for 
there  is  scarcely  contrast  apparent  between  them  to  admit  of  it.  All 
of  them  probably  were  not  great  men  for  all  time.  Mansfield  in  my 
mind  comes  nearer  to  it  than  either  of  the  others. 

(To  Sir  J.  T.  Coleridge.) 

PHILADELPHIA,  7  Feb.,  1872. 

An  alarm  which  the  cable  has  brought  us  from  England,  for  the 
continuance  of  our  good  relations  with  her,  and  which  a  copy  of  the 
Queen's  speech  or  address  at  the  opening  of  Parliament  has  to  some 
degree  allayed,  makes  me  think  of  my  relations  with  you,  which  are 
beyond  disturbance,  and  will  so  remain,  I  think,  whatever  may  become 
of  those  of  our  two  countries.  The  Law  of  Nations  will  find  it  difficult 
to  make  us  enemies,  whatever  our  countries  may  be.  It  ought  to  have 
had  an  exception  for  friends  so  much  beyond  the  fighting  age. 

A  letter  which  your  son  wrote  me  from  Heath's  Court,  when  he 
was  about  leaving  you  to  resume  that  awful  Alexandrine,  the  Tich- 
borne  case,  made  me  a  little  anxious  for  you,  from  the  fact  he  informed 

415 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JEx.  92 

me  of,  that  your  friends  had  asked  you  to  take  part  in  some  approach 
ing  appeal  to  the  Judicial  Committee  of  the  Privy  Council.  I  knew 
it  would  be  the  best  thing  for  the  Church,  but  I  feared  it  as  the  worst 
for  you.  But  your  letter  of  December  relieved  me,  where  you  say 
nothing  about  it,  and  enclose  for  my  daughter  violets  arid  a  primrose, 
and  a  heart's-ease  just  pulled  from  your  mid-December  garden.  Such 
a  climate  for  old  age,  and  I  suppose  a  natal  climate  too;  what  an 
ungrateful  change  to  London !  Here  we  at  that  time  were  bound  up 
in  ice  and  snow,  and  with  frequent  tho'  not  deep  snows  we  have  kept 
on,  and  so  we  shall  probably  continue  until  to  nearly  the  end  of  Lent. 

We  at  last  possess  in  the  city  a  great  winter  luxury,  even  more 
than  it  is  in  summer, — a  park  of  I  think  twenty-four  hundred  acres, 
including,  though  its  medium  filum,  the  river  Schuylkill.  The 
grounds  are  in  great  part  covered  with  noble  forest-trees,  and  the 
views  extensive,  embracing  city,  country,  and  river,  and  the  roads, 
now  finished  on  the  western  side,  so  as  to  make  as  good  a  drive  as  I 
ever  saw  in  Europe.  This  has  been  a  great  recreation  for  me  and  my 
daughter  nearly  every  day  thro'  the  winter.  With  plenty  of  wraps 
in  the  close  carriage,  we  have  uniformly  been  able  to  drive  with  one 
glass  down  without  the  least  inconvenience.  This  I  think  has  greatly 
contributed  to  my  health,  which  would  otherwise  have  suffered  from 
my  inability  to  walk  to  any  extent  on  our  bricks,  for  they  are  gen 
erally  uneven,  lying  at  different  levels  or  angles,  and  turning  me  from 
side  to  side  most  disagreeably,  and  not  safely.  Indeed,  I  have  pretty 
much  ceased  to  be  a  walker;  and  had  I  still  none  but  the  winter 
country  roads  to  drive  over,  I  should  have  no  exercise  at  all.  My 
health  is  now  better  than  it  was  a  year  ago.  I  know  not  that  I  have 
any  other  complaint  (disease)  than  old  age;  of  that  I  make  no  com 
plaint  whatever — rather  thanks. 

We  have  been  greatly  distressed  by  the  death  of  your  nephew, 
Bishop  Patteson.  Some  years  ago,  in  one  of  your  letters,  you  wrote 
of  him  to  me,  rather  more,  however,  in  relation  to  his  father,  your 
brother  Patteson,  and  his  urging  him  to  leave  him  on  his  mission,  tho' 
assured  that  father  and  son  were  to  see  each  other  no  more  in  this 
world;  and  your  last  letter  makes  me  know  more  about  him,  and  a 

416 


1872]  LATER    YEARS 

writer  in  the  Spectator,  his  college  friend  at  Baliol,  Oxford,  still  more. 
A  most  interesting  person  he  must  have  been.  His  death  was  martyr 
dom  in  reality,  though  not  of  either  of  the  three  kinds  which  a  note 
in  the  "  Christian  Year"  speaks  of  —  in  will  and  deed  ;  in  will,  but 
not  in  deed  ;  and  in  deed,  but  not  in  will.  The  will  was  always  there, 
no  doubt,  and  his  preparation  always  made  for  the  duty  when  it 
should  come  ;  but  the  duty  was  not  present,  and  even  the  poor  savages 
did  not  mean  to  kill  their  best  friend,  but  mistook  him  for  an  enemy. 
So,  at  least,  seems  to  be  the  version  we  get.  England  should  look  to 
her  subjects  in  that  quarter,  both  for  defence  and  punishment.  .  .  . 

Still  the  Tichborne  case  goes  on.  It  makes  me  doubt  whether 
the  law  is  not  in  fault  for  some  defect  of  provision  in  the  case.  A 
statute  of  Pennsylvania  while  I  was  at  the  bar,  years  ago,  rejected 
the  exception  in  an  early  statute  in  favour  of  persons  beyond  sea. 
How  long  should  such  a  person,  knowing  that  his  ancestor  is  dead,  and 
that  he  is  the  heir,  be  permitted  to  linger  abroad  before  he  comes  to 
claim  his  estate?  In  these  times  of  steam  and  lightning  speed  over 
the  world,  the  license  of  all  limitation  statutes  requires  looking  to. 

Your  son's  admirable  opening  of  the  defence  must  have  been  a 
gratification  of  the  highest  kind  to  you.  Believe  me,  I  envy  you  not, 
but  partake  of  it  vividly. 

I  have  rambled  along  without  writing  a  word  about  the  President 
or  Congress.  The  war  is  not  yet  begun.  It  will  no  doubt  come.  My 
best  regards  to  Lady  Coleridge  and  family. 

Early  in  1872  Mr.  Binney  made  the  last  contribution 
of  his  brain  and  pen  to  the  service  of  his  fellow-men,  in  the 
plan  for  an  endowment  trust  for  St.  Peter's  Church.  A  few 
years  after  resigning  from  the  vestry  of  Christ  Church,  he 
had  joined  St.  Peter's  parish,  to  which  in  time  he  became 
deeply  attached.  With  his  keen  recollection  of  the  beautiful 
churches  of  England,  he  probably  shared  the  view  strongly 
(but  unsuccessfully)  advocated  by  his  son  and  some  other 
members  of  the  parish,  that  the  architectural  taste  of  the 
founders  of  St.  Peter's  was  inferior  to  their  religious  faith, 


27 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Ex.  92 

and  that  the  example  of  the  latter  would  not  be  lost  by  erect 
ing,  in  the  place  of  the  old  church,  a  structure  which  should 
represent,  as  far  as  possible,  the  best  traditions  of  English 
Gothic,  the  architecture  of  that  communion  to  the  uses  of 
which  the  building  was  devoted.  At  all  events,  he  firmly 
believed  that  St.  Peter's,  on  the  site  which  it  occupied,  had 
a  permanent  work  to  do  in  the  city,  and  that  its  perpetual 
maintenance  should  be  provided  for.  By  1872  very  many 
of  the  parishioners  had  removed  from  that  neighbourhood, 
and  it  was  evident  that  the  congregations  of  the  future  might 
not  be  able  to  support  the  church  as  their  predecessors  had 
done.  Realizing  that  a  permanent  endowment  was  required 
to  meet  these  changed  conditions,  Mr.  Binney  drew  up  a 
comprehensive  scheme  for  the  gradual  accumulation  of  the 
necessary  fund,  together  with  a  brief  statement  of  the  rea 
sons  for  the  undertaking.  The  vestry  adopted  the  plan  at  its 
Easter  meeting,  and  time  has  since  demonstrated  its  success 
and  utility.  In  fact,  Mr.  Binney  was  able  to  see,  in  his  own 
lifetime,  a  substantial  beginning  of  the  present  endowment. 

By  the  death  of  Mr.  Samuel  Thatcher,  of  the  class  of 
1793,  in  July,  1872,  Mr.  Binney  succeeded  to  the  distinction 
of  being  the  oldest  living  graduate  of  Harvard  College. 
The  seventy-five  years  which  had  passed  since  his  own  gradu 
ation  had  not  dulled  his  love  for  his  Alma  Mater,  and  it 
was  with  "  a  pain  that  has  the  sadness  of  sorrow"  that  he 
learned  in  November  of  the  serious  loss  which  the  college 
had  suffered  from  the  great  fire  in  Boston,  a  loss  which,  as 
was  but  natural,  he  speedily  bore  his  share  in  alleviating. 

His  unusual  mental  vitality  in  his  last  years  seems  to 
have  caused  a  general  impression  that  his  bodily  strength  was 
similarly  abnormal,  and  hence  he  was  continually  requested 
to  participate  in  public  meetings  long  after  he  had  ceased 
to  attend  them.  Thus  in  September,  1872,  when  the  Penn- 

418 


1872]  LATER    YEARS 

sylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts,  of  which  he  was  the 
oldest  living  member,  was  about  to  lay  the  corner-stone  of 
its  new  building,  he  could  say  in  all  sincerity  that  he  would 
gladly  have  complied  with  the  request,  but  was  forced  to 
add,  "  The  thing  is  simply  impossible  to  me.  I  have  not 
bodily  strength  to  take  any  part  in  the  ceremony  or  even  to 
be  present  at  it,  and  should  oppose  both  family  and  medical 
advice  in  making  the  attempt.  At  the  age  of  ninety-three 
strength  of  body  and  mind  are  worth  fostering  for  private 
use ;  but  mine  are  not  of  the  least  avail  for  a  public  occasion. 
Still  I  am  thankful  for  health  to  enjoy  old  age  for  some 
purposes,  and  to  be  especially  gratified  by  the  prospect  of 
the  renewed  career  of  a  liberal  and  honoured  institution  of 
our  city  and  country." 

(To  Sir  J.  T.  Coleridge.) 

PHILADELPHIA,  10  Sept.,  1872. 

I  came  home  yesterday  from  the  country  residence  of  one  of  my 
sons-in-law,  where,  with  my  unmarried  daughter,  I  have  passed  the 
last  two  months,  coming  only  about  once  a  fortnight  to  the  city,  to 
look  after  my  household,  or  such  matters  as  called  for  my  action.  The 
country  air  has  been  pure  and  the  verdure  singularly  fresh  and  beau 
tiful  the  whole  summer ;  never  in  my  recollection  as  much  so.  Fre 
quent  rain,  in  either  moderate  or  profuse  showers,  so  frequent,  indeed, 
as  to  have  done  harm  to  some  of  the  field  as  well  as  garden  crops,  has 
been  the  cause  of  this  extraordinary  greenness  of  the  country,  up  to 
this  second  week  in  September.  Not  a  leaf  seems  to  have  fallen  or  to 
be  withered.  And  yet  the  heats  have  been  so  great  and  nearly  constant 
in  country  as  well  as  town,  that  nothing  in  time  past  is  recollected 
like  it,  and  the  lassitude  it  has  caused  in  old  people,  especially  in 
myself,  has  sometimes  been  alarming,  and  always  prostrating  body 
and  mind.  I  have  not  put  pen  to  paper  for  the  entire  summer,  even 
to  reply  to  letters  from  two  of  Horace's  girls,  who  have  written  t 
me  from  Ventnor,  in  the  Isle  of  Wight.  .  .  . 

419 


HORACE    BINNEY  [Mi.  92-93 

I  am  very  glad  to  hear  that  the  arbitrators  at  Geneva  have  made 
their  award.  We  do  not  know  the  sum  they  have  awarded,  nor  any 
particulars  of  the  award,  but  it  is  understood  to  be  sufficient  in  amount 
and  not  thought  extravagant  or  excessive  on  your  side.  I  hope  it  will 
place  our  public  relations  in  a  good  condition  and  leave  no  thorns  in 
the  flesh.  Nevertheless,  being  of  kin,  we  shall  probably  have  the 
usual  altercations  of  kindred  of  rival  interests.  We  may  thank  Grant 
for  the  Treaty.  With  a  Democratic  party  in  power  war  would  at  one 
time  or  other  have  been  the  result  of  the  "  Alabama,"  etc.,  outfits. 
The  people  of  this  side  will  now  gradually  regard  the  matter  as  ar 
ranged  in  a  fair  manner  and  upon  safe  principles  for  both  nations. 

I  dare  say  you  have  not  been  surprised  by  the  extravagances  of 
a  democracy,  or  the  selection  of  Mr.  Greeley  as  the  candidate  of  the 
party  to  whom  he  has  been  all  his  editorial  life  opposed,  and  who  is, 
moreover,  a  person  whom  judicious  persons  of  any  politics  would  be 
slow  to  select  for  their  leader  in  government.  To  many  it  seems  that 
the  selection  was  the  breaking  up  of  the  Democratic  party ;  to  me  it 
has  looked  more  like  the  breaking  up  of  the  Republican  party.  But 
without  saying  what  it  proceeded  from,  or  will  result  in,  the  absurdity 
of  my  voting  for  Greeley  instead  of  Grant  would  be  such  that  I  should 
be  ashamed  and  stultified  by  the  vote  for  the  rest  of  my  days.  But 
this  is  not  very  great  praise  of  Grant  as  a  statesman.  His  military 
services  have  been  great,  and  his  civil  duties  as  President  performed 
with  pure  intentions;  but  his  capacity  as  a  statesman  is  generally 
thought,  by  those  who  wish  him  well,  to  be  of  very  limited  extent. 
I  think  him  honest,  and  not  a  good  judge  of  men.  His  honesty  carries 
my  vote  against  Greeley,  without  the  least  doubt;  but  I  have  little 
hope  that  his  second  administration  will  be  much  better  than  the  first. 
In  our  foreign  relations  he  has  been  sincerely  desirous  of  amity  on 
right  principles.  He  has  been  opposed  by  some  able  persons  in  the 
Senate  who  were  his  friends  at  the  outset.  The  Senate  at  large  we 
think  has  been  for  some  years  past  disposed  to  claim  a  greater  control 
in  the  executive  department  than  properly  belongs  to  it.  Mr.  Sum- 
ner  has  really  hurt  himself  seriously,  with  our  greatest  and  best  think 
ers,  by  his  course.  Grant's  path  with  the  body  has  not  been  an  easy 


1872-73]  LATER    YEARS 

one,  and  would  not  have  been  to  a  man  of  higher  civil  power,  and  of 
much  wider  knowledge  of  men,  and  of  affairs. 

I  hope  you  have  no  fears  for  the  Church  of  England.  I  cannot 
be  persuaded  that  even  a  separation  from  the  State  (improbable  as 
that  seems  to  be)  could  do  her  any  harm.  My  courage  has  been  forti 
fied  by  the  Bampton  lectures  of  the  principal  of  Lichfield  Theological 
College,  Mr.  Curtis.  I  should  be  very  glad  to  know  what  you  think 
of  the  matter.  The  steadiness  of  our  own  Church  is  thought  to  be 
unshaken,  and  her  orthodoxy  perfectly  assured,  notwithstanding  the 
Illinois  case  and  one  or  two  here  which  have  had  like  results. 

But  my  paper  is  out.  I  hope  your  health  still  enables  you  to 
enjoy  your  books  and  friends.  I  believe  that  Lady  Coleridge  was 
able  to  visit  your  son  at  the  bar  feasts  in  May  in  London.  That  was 
an  achievement,  if  it  took  effect  as  intended.  I  could  not  have  done 
it,  certainly.  Pray  give  my  best  regards. 

In  June,  1873,  Dr.  Allibone  published  his  collection  of 
poetical  quotations,  dedicating  it  to  Mr.  Binney  as  "  The 
Head  of  the  Bar  in  the  United  States,"  and  citing,  as  his 
authority  for  the  title,  the  statements  of  Senator  Sumner 
and  Mr.  William  M.  Evarts,  afterwards  Secretary  of  State 
and  ultimately  Senator.  This  dedication  brought  out  the 
following  letter: 

(To  Dr.  S.  A.  Allibone.) 

19  June,  1873. 

I  found  on  my  office  table  yesterday  P.M.  a  splendid  volume  of 
your  "  Poetical  Quotations,"  and,  looking  at  a  blank  leaf  before  the 
title-page,  read  that  it  had  been  sent  to  me  "  with  the  author's  compli 
ments."  Struck  with  the  beauty  of  the  book,  and  pleased  by  a  recog 
nition  of  your  singular  aptitude  for  such  a  selection  by  indexes  of 
discriminating  titles,  I  took  the  volume  to  my  daughter  and  sat  by 
her  side  to  hear  her  remarks.  At  her  third  or  fourth  comment  of 
approval,  she  said,  "  But  here,  did  you  see  this?"  and  then  dumfounded 
me  by  the  dedication.  "  Bless  my  stars,"  thought  I,  "  if  this  is  not  a 

421 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^T.  93-94 


case  of  sudden  insanity  in  my  friend  Allibone,  I'm  no  judge,  whatever 
he  may  think  of  my  being  the  head  of  the  bar.  It  is  a  clear  case  of 
partial  insanity  for  Dr.  Kirkbride,"  and  I  said  as  much  to  my 
daughter. 

"  But  you  won't  say  this  to  Dr.  Allibone  ;  you  will  write  him 
your  best  thanks." 

"  Best  thanks,  of  course  ;  but  I  will  write  him  the  very  words." 

"  But  what  do  the  words  mean,  '  The  Head  of  the  Bar  in  the 
United  States'?  You  have  a  gray  head,  and  a  very  old  head,  and  are 
perhaps  the  oldest  living  man  who  was  long  at  the  bar.  It  does  not 
mean  a  great  deal.  Besides  he  cites  authorities." 

"  That  is  it.  That  proves  what  I  say.  That  shows  it  to  be  a 
case  of  partial  insanity.  The  thing  cannot  be  proved,  is  not  provable, 
is  not  true;  the  authorities  will  be  contradicted  by  other  authorities; 
it  is  not,  and  will  not,  be  true  of  me  if  I  live  to  be  as  old  as  old  Parr  and 
getting  more  law  every  year  instead  of  losing  all  I  had.  In  its  com 
prehensive  sense,  it  is  not  true  of  any  man  at  this  bar,  or  at  any  other. 
In  a  popular  sense,  it  is  merely  a  compliment  and  not  a  very  precise 
one." 

And  so  I  tell  him,  and  thank  him,  and  remit  to  him  the  pains  of 
Dr.  Kirkbride  and  Blockley,  and  hope  his  beautiful  quotations  may 
assuage  many  a  patient  in  the  female's  and  at  least  a  few  in  the  men's. 

Meaning  to  solace  myself  more  with  the  book,  if  health  is  spared 
to  me,  I  may  add  now  that  the  three  indexes  of  authors,  subjects,  and 
first  lines,  are  in  their  union  or  junction  new  to  me;  and  that  they 
seem  to  be  the  three  links  or  strands  of  a  chain  by  which,  at  most, 
every  man  holds  and  associates  all  the  poetry  he  imperfectly  recollects 
and  wishes  to  recall  by  very  words. 

(To  the  same.) 

7  Jan.,  1874. 

I  have  been  waiting  three  mornings  for  light  in  my  offices,  to 
reply  to  your  kind  note.  The  light  has  not  come,  and  I  know  not  when 
it  will;  but  my  reply  must  now  go,  or  you  may  think  my  memory 
has  departed,  tho'  as  yet  my  years  have  not. 


1873-74]  LATER   YEARS 

I  thank  you  heartily  for  your  remembrances  and  congratulations. 
You  have  shown  very  clearly  that  in  point  of  years  I  have  lived  more 
of  them  than,  in  the  annals  of  the  bar,  have  been  assigned  to  the  most 
eminent  English  judges.  That  fact,  however,  admits  of  hardly  any 
inference.  It  is  true  of  itself,  but  it  does  not  prove  anything  else  to 
be  true.  Certainly  it  does  not  even  tend  to  prove  that  I  have  lived 
one-tenth  as  long  as  either  of  them  in  public  use  and  value,  or  in  good 
works,  or  travelled  one-tenth  as  far  into  the  highlands  of  legal  or 
ethical  science,  or  even  lived  longer  in  any  sense  which  distinguishes 
a  wise  man  from  a  fribble.  Therefore  I  regard  the  fact  of  having 
lived  more  years  than  a  dozen  men  of  the  same  calling  or  career  in 
another  country  or  in  this,  however  great  they  were,  as  a  completely 
barren  fact.  It  produces  nothing.  It  produces  nothing  in  the  sense 
of  causation,  tho',  as  a  consequence,  it  is  followed  in  a  few  instances, 
or  there  follows  afterwards  to  me,  on  or  about  a  certain  day  of  a 
certain  month  in  the  year,  a  very  kind  letter  or  two,  in  which  certain 
illogical  assumptions  are  implied,  which  are  flattering,  but  not  at  all 
sustainable,  and  which  I  could  not  be  seriously  thought  to  adopt, 
unless  it  should  happen  (which,  I  pray  God,  may  not!)  that  I  had 
lived  so  long  as  to  have  survived  myself. 

(To  J.  C.  Hamilton,  Esq.) 

PHILADA.,  21  Sept.,  1874. 

We  got  back  to  town  the  day  the  rain  began,  and  are  all  right. 
You  have  no  doubt  received  my  daughter's  letter  in  reply  to  your 
very  kind  one.  If  you  had  received  my  last  letter  to  Cooperstown, 
you  would  have  known  that  my  health  was  as  usual,  rather  firmer  than 
before,  as  it  still  remains ;  but  the  failure  of  one  letter,  and  my  not 
knowing  where  you  had  gone,  when  you  left  Cooperstown,  were  the 
causes  of  our  non-intercourse. 

Who  the  good  lady  was  who  gave  the  sinister  account  of  my 
health,  I  do  not  know.  I  hope  she  did  not  wish  me  dead,  as  some 
persons  do,  who  get  tired  of  hearing  (horrid  blot)  that  I  am  living  so 
much  longer  than  I  ought  to  do.  But  that  is  the  way  with  some 
people.  I  must  live  till  my  time  comes ;  and  I  mean,  if  I  can,  to  live 


423 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  94 

contentedly  until  it  does  come,  whatever  may  be  the  fatigue  I  give 
to  such  persons  by  so  doing. 

Let  me  know  how  you  are  yourself,  and  be  assured  that  whenever 
I  shall  be  called  hence,  you  will  lose,  though  a  very  useless,  a  very 
sincere  friend. 

Excuse  my  not  copying,  to  remedy  the  blot. 

(ToDr.S.A.Allibone.) 

8  Oct.,  1874. 

You  ask  me,  in  your  note  of  yesterday,  to  select  some  quotation 
from  my  own  beautiful  prose  (no  doubt)  to  go  into  your  forthcoming 
work.  I  should  be  puzzled  to  find  a  single  one  that  would  satisfy 
anybody,  especially  myself.  But  if  there  were  as  many  as  the  army 
of  Xerxes,  I  should  feel  like  the  most  impudent  monkey  on  earth  if  I 
myself  were  to  quote  a  single  line  as  worthy  of  my  selection.  Known 
or  unknown  to  others,  my  conscience  would  glow  with  a  shame  reflected 
from  the  impudent  brass  that  would  confront  me  on  the  pages.  At 
my  time  of  day  it  is  morally  impossible.  Nevertheless  I  am,  just  as 
much  as  before  your  request,  your  friend  and  respectful  servant. 

HOR:  BINNEY. 
P.  S. — Very  dark  day  for  a  nonagenarian. 

(To  Sir  J.  T.  Coleridge.) 

PHILADA.,  15  Oct.,  1874. 

I  ought  before  this  to  have  acknowledged  the  safe  arrival  of 
your  photograph  from  the  original  portrait  by  your  son's  wife,  and 
also  your  last  letter  of  27th  July. 

The  photograph,  Judge  Hare  assures  me,  is  a  most  excellent 
likeness,  and  I  value  it  particularly  as  it  was  taken  from  the  work 
of  Lady  Coleridge;  but  when  I  place  it  by  the  side  of  the  portrait 
which  you  formerly  sent  me  with  your  own  name  and  date  of  Sep 
tember  2,  1860,  I  perceive  some  changes  which  time  has  made,  and 
some  which  are  the  impression  of  sadness  rather  than  of  impaired 
health.  It  is  now  framed  and  suspended  in  one  of  my  offices,  as  that 
of  1860  is  in  the  other,  and  there  I  shall  have  one  of  them  before  me 
in  whichever  I  sit. 

424 


1874]  LATER    YEARS 

Your  letter  is  a  proof,  I  think,  and  hope,  of  improved  health ;  for 
that  time,  at  least,  improved,  and  I  trust  it  may  continue  for  years. 
Your  resolution  to  "  bide  your  time,  in  your  own  chimney  corner," 
instead  of  taking  the  wearisome  dose  of  hibernation  in  Italy  or  South 
ern  France,  is  a  perfectly  wise  one.  So  many  things  besides  climate 
are  necessary  to  the  comfort  and  even  the  continuance  of  life  in  ad 
vanced  years  and  failing  health,  that  I  should  make  the  like  decision 
for  myself  without  any  hesitation.  May  it  become  abundantly  clear 
that  it  has  been  the  best  for  you ! 

As  for  myself,  my  health  remains  comfortable,  but  of  course 
with  little  vigour.  I  have  no  organic  disease,  except  in  the  whole 
organism,  and  few  men  at  my  age  are  without  that.  The  hot  weather 
exhausts  me,  and  the  cold  weather  pinches  me,  as  it  seldom  did  before 
I  was  eighty ;  but  the  pure  air  of  the  country,  in  which  I  live  for 
three  months  of  summer,  and  a  well-warmed  house  and  offices  in  winter 
and  cold  weather,  prevent  much  suffering.  I  cannot  walk  far,  but 
can  ride  twelve  or  fifteen  miles  daily  in  our  park  without  the  least 
fatigue.  My  sight  and  hearing  are  still  pretty  good,  and  I  still  read 
by  daylight,  and  listen  to  reading  at  night  or  in  any  light  with  satis 
faction.  Upon  the  whole  I  ought  to  be  thankful,  and  I  am.  While 
I  have  any  memory  remaining,  I  shall  have  most  affectionate  recollec 
tions  of  you,  and  of  your  many  kind  letters ;  but  I  write  few  letters, 
and  I  think  I  ought  not  to  ask  you  even  to  acknowledge  this,  which  is 
nothing  but  an  acknowledgment  itself.  .  .  . 

(To  Dr.  S.  A.  AlUbone.) 

20  Nov.,  1874. 

I  should  have  answered  your  note  of  the  18th,  and  its  enclosed 
paper  with  the  signatures  of  highly  respected  friends,  immediately, 
had  I  not  thought  proper  to  appear,  at  least,  to  take  time  for  the 
consideration  of  the  request,3  or  suggestion,  conveyed  by  that  very 
flattering  paper.  But  I  might  have  given  my  reply  without  a 


8  A   request   that   Mr.    Binney  would   collect   and   republish  his   scattered 
writings. 

425 


HORACE    BINNEY  [JET.  94 

moment's  further  consideration  than  had  been  previously  forced  upon 
me  by  my  very  advanced  age,  and  by  a  similar  suggestion,  made  nearer 
home,  but  not  of  greater  weight,  or  more  respected.  .  .  . 

There  are  two  irrefragable  reasons — I  may  say  convictions — 
that  it  is  both  impossible  and  inexpedient  on  my  part  to  perform  a 
task,  of  which  the  responsibility  would  be  all  my  own,  by  whomsoever 
it  might  be  requested  or  imposed.  They  are  briefly  these : 

1.  My  life,  at  my  age,  would  be  broken  down  by  the  attempt. 
Comfortable  as  it  is  made  by  great  caution  and  regularity,  its  condition 
is  dependent  upon  the  liberty  to  "  far  niente"  Those  who  know  me 
best,  and  want  me  most,  if  they  were  aware  of  such  a  purpose,  would 
apply  to  some  of  my  legal  friends,  whose  names  are  subscribed  to  the 
paper,  to  have  me  placed  under  restraint.  No  one  but  myself  could 
do  the  work;  and,  within  six  weeks  of  ninety-five,  I  may  gratefully 
confess  that  I  am  past  work  of  any  kind. 

Q.  But  the  other  reason  for  non-compliance  is  equally  or  more 
strong,  and  the  conviction  of  its  force,  in  the  party  who  is  to  bear  the 
responsibility  of  an  error  on  such  a  point,  ought  not  to  yield  to  any 
persuasion  by  friends,  whose  judgment  on  other  points  he  might 
prefer  to  his  own.  This  is  a  question  of  feeling,  in  some  degree  of 
taste,  and  to  a  certain  extent,  of  the  writer's  own  standard  of  litera 
ture.  Now,  I  must  say,  with  all  sincerity,  that  at  no  time  in  my  life 
have  I  regarded  anything  that  I  have  printed  as  entering  into  the 
domain  of  literature  at  all,  or  as  worthy  of  assuming  any  other  form 
than  that  which  I  gave  it.  No  union,  or  collection,  altogether,  or  in 
fewer  parts,  would  change  their  character  or  bring  them  into  perma 
nent  connection  with  any  literature  whatever. 

Pray  inform  my  much  respected  and  valued  friends  that  I  am 
proud  of  their  testimonial,  but  that  I  am  not  a  particle  the  vainer  for 
it ;  for  I  look  upon  it,  and  value  it,  rather  as  a  moral  contribution  to 
the  character  of  what  I  have  occasionally  printed,  and  not  to  critical 
judgment  upon  it. 

The  predominance  of  the  Republican  party  in  Philadel 
phia  after  the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  and  especially  after 

426 


1874]     STRUGGLE   FOR  GOOD   GOVERNMENT 

the  extension  of  the  suffrage  to  the  negroes,  was  attended 
by  a  serious  falling  off  in  the  quality  of  the  men  elected  to 
local  office.  The  deterioration  was  gradual,  but  it  was  none 
the  less  decided;  and  to  Mr.  Binney,  who,  though  never 
calling  himself  a  member  of  the  Republican  party,  approved 
the  principles  for  which  it  originally  stood  and  still  claimed 
to  stand,  it  was  very  painful  to  see  affiliation  with  that  party 
used  as  a  cloak  by  men  who  sought  office  for  themselves  or 
others  mainly  for  some  personal  advantage,  or  to  see  local 
offices  used  as  pawns  in  the  game  of  national  politics,  in 
utter  recklessness  of  the  great  injury  thereby  inflicted  on 
the  community.  Writing  to  Mr.  Hamilton  in  October,  1871, 
when  the  great  movement  against  the  Tweed  ring  in  New 
York  was  in  progress,  he  said,  "  Politics  are  the  real  source 
and  strength  of  the  fraud  and  thieving  that  is  everywhere 
prevalent.  Party  men  on  both  sides  are  so  thoroughly 
bent  on  their  objects,  that  they  will  use  rascals,  and  pro 
mote  plunder,  even  when  they  profess  to  hate  it.  We 
have  the  robbers  in  office  here.  The  Republicans  will  put 
them  in  office,  if  they  think  it  will  help  what  they  call 
the  main  chance;  and  frown  on  all  efforts  to  organize  a 
body  that  only  aims  to  proscribe  their  well-known  rascally 
candidates." 

For  some  years  Mr.  Binney  rarely  voted  at  local  elec 
tions,  owing  to  the  dearth  of  candidates  whom  he  could  con 
scientiously  support,  but  in  February,  1874,  when  the  mis 
rule  of  the  majority  party  had  provoked  a  more  determined 
opposition  than  usual,  he  was  ready  to  take  sides.  The  sight 
of  an  aged  Federalist  in  a  Republican  stronghold,  braving 
the  chill  of  a  wintry  day  to  vote  the  Democratic  ticket  for 
lack  of  a  better,  was  a  striking  lesson  in  non-partisanship, 
all  the  more  so,  perhaps,  as  it  turned  out  that  in  that  contest, 
as  in  so  many  subsequent  ones,  the  dead  weight  of  party 

427 


HORACE    BINNEY  ^ET.  94 


spirit  and  the  "  cohesive  force  of  public  plunder"  were  too 
strong  to  be  overcome.  This  Democratic  ballot  was  ap 
parently  the  last  that  Mr.  Binney  was  able  to  cast,  but,  as 
the  next  letter  shows,  he  remained  in  opposition  to  the  party 
to  which,  during  the  first  years  of  its  existence,  he  had  given 
his  steady  support. 

(To  J.  C.  Hamilton,  Esq.) 

PHILADA.,  Nov.  26,  1874. 

I  am  writing  this  in  almost  Stygian  darkness,  for  I  cannot  write 
by  lamplight.  When  I  received  your  letter  of  ye  18th,  I  had  unfin 
ished  writing  on  hand,  and  could  not  but  give  much  better  light 
to  its  completion;  and  then  my  wearied  hand  compelled  me  to  put 
off  my  acknowledgment  of  your  kind  note  to  this  morning,  when 
clouds  and  rain  from  the  south  have  swallowed  up  nine-tenths  of 
daylight. 

In  other  respects  I  am  as  usual,  no  better  and  no  worse.  I  am 
glad  that  you  seem  to  be  better,  and  have  a  number  of  years  to  grow 
even  better.  I  have  no  such  chance. 

.  .  .  But  what  is  this  falling-off  to  what  has  happened  with  the 
great  Republican  party  ?  If  it  is  not  on  its  back,  and  its  back  broken, 
it  is  at  least  on  all  fours,  and  must  come  down  flat  before  it  can  get 
up  again  under  the  same  name  or  another. 

Pray  write  me  when  you  can  what  men  of  sense  among  you  think 
or  predict  is  to  happen  when  thorough  Democratic  rule  shall  be  estab 
lished.  I  rely  on  you  in  this  department.  Their  opinions  are  not 
likely  to  affect  me,  because  I  feel  certain  that  I  shall  be  jsrone  before 
1877;  but  one  likes  to  hear  what  men  think  while  one  lives,  and  I 
think  your  report  may  be  relied  on. 

Some  great  change  must  occur  to  give  honest  men,  however 
numerous  they  may  be,  a  possibility  in  this  city  to  elect  honest  men 
to  office  ;  for  they  cannot  give  the  nomination  to  honest  men.  Rogues 
who  affect  to  be  on  their  side  in  politics  always  combine  and  succeed 
in  getting  the  pas,  and  then  nominate  themselves,  or  other  rogues 
like  them,  and  another  ticket  becomes  hopeless. 


1874]     STRUGGLE   FOR  GOOD   GOVERNMENT 

But  the  darkness  grows  more  intense,  and  I  must  stop.  Pray 
keep  well,  and  write  when  you  can  give  me  light  on  the  future  of  this 
country,  if  you  can. 

I  cannot  see  to  read  what  I  have  written.  Please  correct  what  is 
wrong  or  illegible  to  your  fancy. 

The  year  1875  found  Mr.  Binney  still  in  possession  of 
an  active  and  unclouded  mind,  and  with  bodily  strength  not 
noticeably  less  than  it  had  been  for  four  or  five  years  before. 
He  was  subject  to  attacks  of  rheumatism,  and  could  take  but 
little  physical  exercise,  but  he  drove  out  for  some  hours  every 
day  that  the  weather  permitted.  His  handwriting  had  lost 
its  firmness,  but  the  letters  he  wrote,  though  few  and  short, 
showed  no  signs  of  any  mental  decline.  If  he  could  not  read 
as  continuously  as  of  old,  there  was  no  falling  off  in  the 
quality  of  his  reading,  nor  in  his  complete  ability  to  master 
all  that  he  read.  He  suffered  much  from  the  unusually 
severe  and  protracted  winter,  which  kept  him  housed  as  he 
had  never  been  before,  but  with  the  spring  his  customary 
health  seemed  to  return,  and  his  drives  in  the  park  had  a 
new  interest  in  the  sight  of  the  preparations  then  just  begun 
for  the  exhibition  which  was  to  commemorate  the  first  cen 
tury  of  our  independence,  a  century  which  nearly  coincided 
with  his  own  life.  Some  records  of  his  appearance  and  con 
versation  at  this  time  are  found  in  the  note-book  of  the  late 
Mr.  Henry  Armitt  Brown. 

"  December  30,  1874. — Met  Mr.  Carey  by  appointment 
and  went  with  him  to  see  Mr.  Binney.  Instead  of  going 
to  the  front  door  and  ringing  the  bell,  as  I  expected,  Mr. 
Carey  entered  the  little  entrance,  and,  reaching  the  inner 
door,  knocked  sharply  twice.  A  slight  noise,  succeeded  by 
unbolting  and  unbarring,  followed,  and  the  door  was  opened. 
Mr.  Binney  himself  stood  before  us.  He  seemed  about  the 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Bx.  95 

middle  height.  On  his  head  he  wore  a  black  skull-cap.  A 
large  folio  lay  open  on  the  table,  and  his  spectacles  lying 
beside  it  showed  what  he  had  been  doing.  Greeting  Mr. 
Carey  pleasantly,  and  shaking  me  by  the  hand  when  intro 
duced,  he  asked  me  to  sit  down,  and,  having  taken  up  the 
big  folio,  walked  over  to  the  end  of  the  room  and  placed  it 
carefully  on  the  lower  shelf;  then,  returning,  took  a  chair 
facing  and  between  us.  After  a  few  general  words,  Mr. 
Carey  spoke  of  the  near  approach  of  his  ninety-fifth  birth 
day.  '  Yes,'  said  the  old  man,  '  I  shall  be  ninety-five  in  a 
few  days.  I  don't  know  how  it  is  that  I  have  lived  so  long. 
It  has  stolen  on  me  unawares.  Up  at  Cambridge  they  want 
to  make  a  great  deal  of  it,  but  I  tell  them  they  shan't.  I 
tell  them  they  shan't  [repeating  it].  Survivorship  is  the 
meanest  thing  in  the  world.  When  I  was  at  the  bar  I  never 
could  make  anything  out  of  a  case  that  had  nothing  but  that 
to  recommend  it.  In  my  case,  the  fact  is, — as  I  tell  them 
at  Harvard, — I  have  happened  to  outlive — not  everybody, 
thank  God! — but  a  great  many  dead  people.'  .  .  .  When 
we  had  been  seated  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour  there  was  a 
pause,  when  he  drew  out  his  watch  and,  in  a  very  courtly 
tone,  said,  '  You  must  excuse  me  to-day;  I  have  an  engage 
ment  to  drive  with  a  lady.  The  next  time  come  earlier;' 
and,  turning  to  me,  '  I  shall  be  glad  to  see  you  soon  again. 
I  will  let  you  into  the  secret  way  of  getting  in.  Did  you 
notice  the  way  in  which  Mr.  Carey  knocked?  [knocking  with 
his  knuckles,  as  he  spoke,  on  the  table].  Well,  come  to  the 
side  door  and  give  that  knock,  and  if  I'm  here  I'll  let  you 
in.  That  was  the  old  Phi  Beta  Kappa  knock  we  used  to 
have  in  Cambridge  in  '93.  Come  about  ten  o'clock  in  the 
morning.'  With  a  few  words  like  these  he  ushered  us  out 
in  the  most  lordly  manner.  I  have  never  seen  an  old  man 
who  seemed  so  much  the  master  of  his  faculties.  I  had  im- 

430 


1875]  LATER   YEARS 

agined  him  much  feebler  and  more  broken.  In  repose,  his 
face  looks  old,  but  when  animated,  in  conversation,  not 
remarkably  so." 

"  February  10, 1875.— On  my  arrival  at  the  office  I  took 
advantage  of  the  hour,  and  the  fact  that  nothing  pressed, 
to  call  on  Mr.  Binney.  On  knocking  with  two  raps  at  his 
office-door,  it  was  opened,  and,  to  my  surprise,  he  recognized 
me  at  once.  He  wore,  as  usual,  his  velvet  cap,  which  hides 
the  top  of  his  forehead.  He  drew  a  chair  before  the  fire  and 
bade  me  do  the  same.  A  glance  at  the  table  showed  me  that 
he  had  been  reading  John  Quincy  Adams's  Memoirs.  I 
began  to  speak  of  them,  when  he  started  off  at  once. 
'  Adams,'  he  said,  '  was  in  Congress  with  me  in  '33  to  '35, — 
an  admirable  man.  I  confess  I  have  never  quite  made  up 
my  mind  on  the  question  of  the  bargain  charged  as  made 
between  him  and  Mr.  Clay,  though  I  think  the  friends  of 
both  parties  must  have  had  an  understanding.'  He  con 
trasted,  with  some  degree  of  earnestness,  Adams's  refusal 
to  appoint  a  relative  to  office,  even  at  the  request  of  the 
President,  with  the  practice  of  great  men  of  to-day.  He 
spoke  of  the  change  for  the  worse  in  public  men, — mentally 
and  morally.  *  When  I  was  in  Congress  there  were  men  of 
ability  and  honour  in  public  life,  but  the  bad  ones  were  get 
ting  the  ascendency  very  rapidly,  and  it  has  been  growing 
worse  ever  since.'  I  said  I  thought  that  General  Jackson 
had  done  much  to  debase  politics.  '  Yes,'  he  replied,  '  un 
doubtedly.'  .  .  .  '  Clay,'  he  said,  '  was  a  delightful  man  to 
talk  with  and  hear  speak.  He  had  a  fine  voice  and  manner, 
but  his  speeches  did  not  read  well.  Webster,  on  the  other 
hand,  sounded  sometimes  dull,  but  the  next  day  what  he  had 
said  seemed  excellent  in  print.  He  had  extraordinary  power. 
I  have  heard  him  sometimes  when  he  seemed  to  lift  me  up 
to  my  tiptoes.  He  was  not  a  great  lawyer.  He  had  not 

431 


HORACE    BINNEY  [^Ex.  95 

thorough  training  or  deep  learning,  but  in  the  argument  of 
constitutional  questions  he  had  no  superior.'  I  spoke  of  the 
Girard  Will  case  as  one  in  which  he  had  not  sustained  his 
reputation.  '  He  had  the  law  against  him,'  was  the  reply ; 
*  and,  besides  that,  he  didn't  understand  the  law  in  that  case. 
Had  he  done  so  he  would  have  been  in  a  far  worse  position 
than  he  was.'  But  in  the  Dartmouth  College  case, — *  Ah, 
there  he  had  the  law  with  him.  In  constitutional  questions,' 
he  repeated,  '  he  was  unequalled.  I  have  always  said  that 
he  was  superior  even  to  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  and  you 
know  I  heard  his  speech  in  the  Jonathan  Robbins  case  when 
I  was  a  law  student.'  ...  *  Marshall  and  Webster,'  he  went 
on,  '  were,  of  course,  very  different.  The  former  seemed  to 
make  link  after  link,  until  he  had  joined  two  points  with  a 
perfect  chain.  His  logic  was  wonderful.  But  Webster 
seemed  to  strike  a  succession  of  ponderous  blows.  He  bore 
down  everything  before  him  by  his  weight.'  Further  talk 
about  Mr.  Webster  led  Mr.  Binney  to  speak  of  Jeremiah 
Mason,  '  one  of  the  greatest  lawyers  and  greatest  men  this 
country  has  produced.'  '  He  was  a  giant  in  size,  and,  by  the 
way,  the  Chief  Justice  of  Massachusetts  was  here  to  see  me 
the  other  day, — an  enormous  man,  too ;  nearly  as  tall  as  Mr. 
Mason, — Mr.  Gray.'  He  asked  me  if  I  had  read  his  (Ma 
son's)  Memoir  and  Correspondence,  prepared  by  Mr.  Hil- 
lard,  of  Boston.  I  had  not.  With  that  the  old  gentleman 
rose  and  searched  for  a  moment  in  one  of  his  bookcases,  but 
could  not  find  the  volume,  giving  it  up  at  length  with  the 
remark  that  his  daughter  arranged  his  books  when  they  got 
in  disorder,  and  that  he  would  send  it  to  me.  He  asked  me 
if  I  had  received  an  invitation  to  go  to  the  celebration  which 
they  are  to  have  at  Lexington  on  the  one  hundredth  anni 
versary  of  the  fight.  I  answered  that  I  had,  and  hoped  to 
go.  '  I  am  too  old  for  such  journeys  now,'  he  said.  '  At 

432 


1875]  LATER   YEARS 

ninety-five  and  over  I  cannot  go  so  far  from  home.'  .  .  . 
After  more  than  an  hour's  talk  I  took  my  leave.  The  inter 
view  was  most  interesting  in  every  respect.  There  is  nothing 
to  indicate  great  age  in  Mr.  Binney  but  the  loss  of  teeth, 
which  often  makes  his  words  a  little  indistinct.  He  is  neither 
blind  nor  deaf,  and  every  faculty  seems  unimpaired.  He 
stoops  considerably,  but  his  eye — a  deep  blue — is  still  bright. 
...  In  everything  he  says  you  notice  the  man  of  power. 
His  language  is  always  correct  and  beautiful." 

"  June  7,  1875. — Called  this  morning  on  Mr.  Binney. 
He  was  in  his  back  office.  .  .  .  The  back  office  is  a  large, 
pleasant  room,  with  straw  matting  on  the  floor,  and  two 
large  windows  opening  out  upon  a  broad  garden  full  of 
trees  and  flowers.  Mr.  Binney  wore  his  little  cap,  as  usual, 
and  seemed  to  me  at  first  rather  feeble  for  him,  or,  to  speak 
more  correctly,  less  vigorous  than  usual.  ...  I  turned  the 
subject  presently  upon  Mr.  Adams's  Memoirs,  the  sixth 
volume  of  which  he  had  just  commenced,  and  remarked  that 
I  thought  it  strange  that  so  able  and  learned  a  man  as  Mr. 
Adams,  living  in  the  period  in  which  he  filled  so  large  a 
place,  had  taken  no  part  in  the  discussion  of  the  great  con 
stitutional  questions  which  arose.  He  seemed  to  have  con 
tributed  nothing  to  constitutional  law.  Mr.  Binney  replied 
that  '  the  reason  was  that  Mr.  Adams  did  not  take  naturally 
to  legal  questions,  and  was  not  a  well-read  lawyer.  He 
practised  a  little  in  Boston,  but  not  much,  and  he  did  not 
feel  much  interest  in,  or  enthusiasm  for,  the  law.  But  he 
had  a  natural  gift  for  politics  and  government,  and  they 
had  the  wisdom  in  Massachusetts  to  perceive  this  political 
capacity  very  early,  and  to  send  him  to  the  Senate.  He 
acquired  in  time  a  thorough  knowledge  of  European  and 
American  affairs,  and  in  some  things  he  was  the  fullest- 
minded  man  I  ever  knew.  But  he  was  no  lawyer.  When 

oo  433 


HORACE    BINNEY  MT.  95 


Mr.  Cheves  was  president  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States, 
the  question  arose  as  to  the  duty  of  the  bank  to  redeem  the 
notes  of  various  States  in  government  notes  at  Philadelphia, 
and  Mr.  Cheves,  who  was  not  much  of  a  banker  and  stayed 
here  but  a  short  time,  —  but  a  very  estimable  gentleman,  — 
came  to  me  for  an  opinion.  I  gave  him  one,  and  said  that 
the  bank  had  to  do  it,  and  pointed  out  that  the  arrangement 
as  made  by  General  Hamilton  was  one  mutually  advan 
tageous  for  the  bank  and  for  the  government.  He  was  not 
satisfied,  and  Mr.  Adams  insisted  that  the  opposite  view 
must  be  correct.  Together  they  got  an  opinion  from  Mr. 
Pinkney,  in  which  he  agreed  with  me.  I  think  they  got  six 
opinions  and  all  the  same  way.  Even  then  Mr.  Adams  said 
he  supposed  it  must  be  the  law,  as  it  was  so  stated  by  gentle 
men,  —  about  whom  he  made  some  complimentary  remark,  — 
but  he  couldn't  be  satisfied.'  ...  I  asked  Mr.  Binney  if  he 
had  known  Mr.  Pinkney.  He  answered,  never;  he  had 
never  seen  him.  But  he  was  a  man  of  great  power,  un 
doubtedly.  He  then  went  on  and  told  me  of  a  case  in  which 
[he]  4  had  defended  a  ship  that  was  brought  in  as  a  prize,  — 
the  first  case  of  the  kind,  and  the  principles  of  maritime  and 
prize  law  were  new  then  and  the  questions  that  arose  un 
settled.  *  I  won  the  case  here,  and  it  went  to  Washington. 
I  won  it  also,  I  remember,  at  the  Circuit  Court  before  Judge 
Bushrod  Washington.  For  some  reason  I  did  not  go  to 
argue  it  in  the  Supreme  Court;  I  don't  remember  why. 
Mr.  Pinkney  was  engaged  on  the  other  side  and  made  a 
great  argument,  and  she  was  condemned.  Judge  Washing 
ton  dissented,  but  gave  no  opinion;  but  he  spoke  to  me 


*Mr.  Brown's  note-book  states  that  Mr.  Pinkney  (erroneously  referred  to  as 
Mr.  Pinckney)  defended  the  ship,  which  is  of  course  a  mistake.  Being  Attorney- 
General  at  the  time,  he  naturally  conducted  the  argument  for  the  captors  on 
appeal. 

434 


1875]  LATER   YEARS 

afterwards  of  the  matter,  and  said  I  ought  to  have  gone 
down,  that  Mr.  Pinkney's  argument  had  carried  the  court.' 
...  I  spoke  of  the  change  in  the  bar  and  the  want  of  am 
bition  among  its  members  to  become  accomplished  lawyers 
in  the  highest  sense.  I  said  I  knew  of  but  few  men  of  my 
time  who  seemed  to  me  to  have  a  very  high  ambition.  Mr. 
Binney  continued :  *  I  am  so  much  retired,  and  see  so  little 
of  the  world  in  my  privacy  here,  that  there  are  many  things 
which  I  do  not  see  in  which  I  would  take  interest.  Doubt 
less  you  are  right,  and  the  bar  has  degenerated.  All  that  I 
have  seen  and  heard  confirms  your  opinion.  But  you  must 
remember  that  the  times  have  changed,  for  Philadelphia,  up 
to  1806,  and  even  much  later,  was  the  commercial  metropolis 
of  the  country.  All  the  underwriting  was  done  here;  the 
great  cases  arose  here  or  came  here  for  settlement.  It  is  not 
so  now.  We  have  necessarily  grown  provincial,  and,  with 
the  decline  in  the  relative  importance  of  the  cases  which  it 
tries,  the  bar  has  fallen  off.  But,'  he  went  on  with  much 
animation,  '  remember,  the  more  commonplace  the  bar  the 
better  is  the  chance  for  ability  and  industry;  for  there  is 
always  work  enough  in  Philadelphia,  and  important  work 
too.  If  the  general  run  of  lawyers  do  not  strive  for  the 
first  places,  there  must  be  all  the  more  room  in  the  front 
rank.  Cherish  an  honourable  ambition.  Be  strict  in  attend 
ing  to  your  business.  Prepare  yourself  with  care.  Be  in 
dustrious  and  study  hard,  and  resolve,  no  matter  what  the 
temptation  may  be,  never  to  do  an  unworthy  action  or  take  a 
mean  advantage,  and  by  all  means'— here  he  leaned  forward 
and  placed  his  hand  upon  my  knee— '  cultivate  your  talent 
for  public  speaking;  then,  take  my  word  for  it,  the  reward 
will  come.'  Continuing  in  this  strain,  he  spoke  next  of  the 
changes  in  the  condition  and  prestige  of  the  bench.  :  To 
think  that  there  should  be  chief  justices  of  Pennsylvania  by 

435 


HORACE    BINNEY  (yET.95 

the  score!  But  we  mustn't  slander  any  one;  there  are  some 
excellent  gentlemen  among  them.'  I  asked  him  if  he  did 
not  attribute  the  decadence  of  the  judiciary  to  the  elective 
system?  He  said,  '  No;  I  don't  think  that  to  return  to  the 
appointive  system  would  entirely  cure  the  trouble.  Gover 
nors  are  partisans  and  are  apt  to  appoint  partisans,  and, 
on  the  whole,  I  think  the  people  may  be  trusted  to  choose 
men  as  fit  as  those  whom  governors  would  select;  but  the 
office  should  be  held  for  life  during  good  behaviour, — that 
would  make  the  incumbent  independent  of  all  political  in 
fluence  for  a  re-election.  When  the  late  convention 5  met 
I  urged  these  views  upon  several  gentlemen  without  avail. 
But  to  make  our  judges  dependent  every  few  years  on  the 
favour  or  fancy  of  political  conventions  is  all  wrong.  Too 
much  cannot  be  said  against  it.'  After  a  two  hours'  inter 
view  I  rose  to  go.  He  shook  me  very  warmly  by  the  hand 
and  said  I  must  come  again  soon.  .  .  .  The  impressions 
made  on  me  by  previous  interviews  were  deepened  by  this. 
It  seems  quite  impossible,  as  you  hear  Mr.  Binney  talk  and 
watch  the  changing  expression  of  his  intellectual  face,  that 
he  is  within  five  years  of  being  a  hundred  years  old.  His 
voice  is  not  weak,  and  were  it  not  for  the  loss  of  teeth  would 
not  sound  like  that  of  a  very  aged  man.  His  eye  is  bright. 
When  I  came  in  and  he  saw  me,  it  kindled  with  a  pleasant 
light  of  recognition  as  many  a  younger  man's  might  not 
have  done,  no  matter  how  friendly  his  feelings  to  me.  He 
is  not  deaf.  The  instant  I  knocked  at  the  door  I  heard  his 
prompt  *  Come  in.'  He  stoops  very  much,  but  it  is  rather 
the  stoop  of  a  scholarly  habit  than  of  age.  The  most  re 
markable  thing  about  him  is  his  conversational  power, — if 
I  pass  by  the  extraordinary  memory  which  shows  itself  in  all 


6  The  Pennsylvania  Constitutional  Convention  of  1873. 
436 


1875]  DEATH 

he  says, — for  he  remembers  everything,  even  the  name,  to 
day,  of  the  vessel  which  he  defended, — the  first  prize  brought 
in  in  the  war  of  1812,  and  which  I  have  forgotten  already. 
In  what  I  have  written  of  his  conversation  I  have  tried  to 
recall  his  words,  but  I  have  been  able  to  do  so  very  imper 
fectly.  He  reminded  me  all  the  time  when  he  spoke  of  what 
Chesterfield  says  of  Bolingbroke,  that  his  eloquence  was  of 
so  pure  and  fine  a  character  that  were  his  ordinary  and 
familiar  talk  taken  down  as  it  fell  from  his  lips  it  might 
have  been  printed  without  correction  either  as  to  the  method 
or  style.  It  is  without  question  the  purest,  smoothest,  most 
dignified,  and  elegant  conversation  I  have  ever  heard."  6 

Not  long  after  this  last  interview,  Mr.  Binney  went  to 
his  son-in-law's  country  place,  as  usual  in  the  summer,  but 
thought  himself  quite  able  to  endure  even  the  heat  of  the 
city.  He  still  kept  in  his  own  hands  much  of  the  manage 
ment  of  his  affairs,  and  as  they  had  always  called  him  to  the 
city  for  the  first  few  days  of  August,  he  saw  no  reason  for 
making  any  change  even  in  his  ninety-sixth  year.  He  there 
fore  returned  to  his  house,  but  was  almost  at  once  taken  ill. 
He  slowly  sank  more  and  more,  and  on  the  morning  of 
August  12  his  long  and  active  life  came  peacefully  to  an 
end.  Four  days  later  his  body  was  laid  to  rest  beside  that 
of  his  wife,  in  the  church-yard  of  St.  James  the  Less. 

On  Saturday,  August  14,  the  bar  of  Philadelphia  met 
at  noon  in  the  Supreme  Court  room,  to  honour  the  memory 
of  him  who  had  so  long  stood  at  its  head,  and  who  had  him 
self  repeatedly  paid  a  like  tribute  to  those  who  had  gone 
before  him.  Mr.  Justice  Strong,  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States,  presided,  and  the  addresses  testified  to  a 
universal  conviction  that  the  biographer  of  the  leaders  of 


6  Memoir  of  Henry  Armitt  Brown,  by  J.  M.  Hoppin,  pp.  102-115. 

437 


HORACE    BINNEY 

the  old  bar  had  himself  been  "  a  leader  inferior  to  no  other." 
The  resolutions  adopted  were  as  follows : 

The  last  and  one  of  the  greatest  of  that  body  of  lawyers  who 
represented  the  bar  of  Philadelphia  in  its  best  days ;  one  eminent  in 
our  city,  State  and  country;  one  who,  though  long  withdrawn  from 
active  life,  has  been  spared  to  us  a  monument  and  example ;  the  Hon. 
Horace  Binney,  ripe  in  years  and  in  honour,  has  gone  to  the  grave, 
and  the  bench  and  the  bar,  meeting  here  to  express  their  regret,  and 
to  hold  up  his  memory  for  the  future  in  a  fitting  manner,  do  resolve : 

That  Mr.  Binney,  as  a  representative  of  Philadelphia  in  the 
National  Congress,  and  in  all  his  interventions  in  public  affairs,  gave 
conclusive  evidence  of  the  value  of  the  services  of  the  high-toned  and 
educated  lawyer  to  the  government  and  the  community. 

That  of  his  worth  as  a  citizen  and  the  sincere  and  the  unfailing 
esteem  of  the  community  no  better  proof  can  be  given  than  the  fact 
that  to  the  last,  through  all  his  declining  years,  notwithstanding  the 
retirement  and  privacy  of  his  life,  he  was  always  brought  forward 
in  periods  of  alarm  and  danger,  and  his  advice  always  sought  when 
the  situation  was  so  critical  that  to  secure  sound  opinion  and  to  im 
press  it  by  loftiness  of  character  were  deemed  essential  to  our  safety. 

That  at  the  bar,  in  the  sphere  which  he  loved  the  best  and  adorned 
the  most,  he  was  among  the  ablest  of  those  of  whom  we  have  knowl 
edge  ;  learned,  acute,  calm  and  wise  in  deliberation,  prompt  and  brave 
in  decision  and  action,  as  unerring  in  action  as  it  is  permitted  us  to 
be,  cogent  in  argument,  polished  and  graceful  in  rhetoric;  upright 
to  a  degree  so  fully  recognized  that  he  was  lifted  above  coarse  solici 
tation  and  stood  apart  from  ordinary  temptation.  No  man  sought 
him  who  did  not  believe  that  he  was  securing  the  highest  ability ;  no 
man  approached  him  who  thought  that  success  depended  on  indi 
rection. 

That  as  a  gentleman  of  elegant  tastes  and  acquirements  his 
efforts  have  shown  how  much  he  might  have  added  to  the  treasures  of 
our  literature  if  his  inclinations  had  led  him  more  decidedly  in  that 
direction,  and  his  pure  and  forcible  English  must  always  occasion 

438 


1875]  MEETING    OF    THE    BAR 

regret  that  he  did  not  leave  us  more  of  the  products  of  his  pen  in 
fields  other  than  those  of  his  profession. 

That  if  social  and  domestic  excellencies  and  the  unstained  purity 
of  private  character  are  traits  that  may,  with  delicacy,  be  noticed 
here,  we  may  hold  up  Mr.  Binney  to  the  best  of  all  classes  as  a  model 
of  a  husband,  a  father,  and  a  friend. 

That  in  the  unusual  length  of  Mr.  Binney's  life,  in  his  long- 
continued  enjoyment  of  a  robust  body  and  vigorous  mind;  in  his 
apparent  freedom  from  the  ordinary  weaknesses  and  sufferings  of  old 
age,  we  have  evidence  of  that  strong  self-control  for  which  he  was 
remarkable  and  which  led  to  habits  conducive  to  such  results;  and 
in  the  dignity,  we  might  almost  say  majesty,  of  those  descending 
steps  we  see  the  same  self-control  keeping  alive  to  the  last  the  graces 
of  the  refined  and  cultivated  gentleman. 

That  by  us  who  now  tread  the  difficult  paths  which  he  trod  with 
such  success,  the  memory  of  a  life  so  closely  connected  with  the  proud 
est  period  and  highest  honours  of  our  profession  must  be  fondly  cher 
ished.  It  is  part  of  our  history,  part  of  that  property  which  always 
resides  in  the  reputation  of  our  class,  and  we  must,  if  we  are  true  to 
ourselves,  ever  hold  it  up  for  our  guidance  and  encouragement. 

That  we  feel  that  this  customary  meeting  of  the  bar  does  not 
sufficiently  fulfil  our  duty  or  satisfy  expectations;  that  something 
more  formal  and  public  should  be  done  to  mark  our  estimation  of  one 
so  good  and  eminent,  and  that  a  committee  be  therefore  appointed 
whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  communicate  these  resolutions  to  the  family, 
with  our  sincere  and  respectful  condolence,  and  to  take  such  measures 
as  they  may  deem  best  to  do  further  honour  to  Mr.  Binney's  memory. 

The  wish  expressed  in  the  last  resolution  was  carried  out 
some  five  months  later,  when  Judge  Strong  delivered  his 
"  Eulogium  on  the  Life  and  Character  of  Horace  Binney," 
at  Musical  Fund  Hall.  The  theme  was  well  handled,  and 
the  character  of  the  audience  which  thronged  the  hall  tes 
tified  to  the  appeal  which  Mr.  Binney's  long  life  had  made 
to  all  that  was  best  and  noblest  in  his  native  city. 

439 


HORACE    BINNEY 

Since  the  death  of  Horace  Binney  the  city  authorities 
have  seen  fit  to  perpetuate  his  memory  by  giving  his  name  to 
one  of  the  public  schools  not  far  from  the  spot  where  he 
lived,  and  also  by  carving  his  features  on  the  key-stone  of 
an  arch  of  the  City  Hall,  inside  the  main  southern  entrance. 
As  this  entrance  leads  to  the  courts  of  law,  and  upon  it  the 
word  "  Justice"  is  inscribed,  there  is  some  appropriateness 
in  the  site  chosen;  but  not  one  in  ten  thousand  of  those  who 
pass  under  the  arch  ever  notice  the  face  which  looks  down 
upon  them,  and  still  fewer  have  any  idea  whose  face  it  is. 
It  is  a  pity  that  there  has  been  no  accompanying  inscription 
to  arrest  the  attention  of  the  passer-by.  Perhaps  the  most 
striking  inscription  would  have  been  simply  the  concluding 
words  of  the  speech  on  the  Removal  of  the  Deposits, — ff  The 
spirit  of  party  is  a  more  deadly  foe  to  free  institutions  than 
the  spirit  of  despotism." 


440 


CHARACTERISTICS 


XVI 

CHARACTERISTICS 

IN  the  opening  words  of  his  Eulogy  upon  Chief  Justice 
Marshall  Mr.  Binney  had  said,  "  The  Providence  of 
God  is  shown  most  beneficently  to  the  world,  in 
raising  up  from  time  to  time,  and  in  crowning  with  length 
of  days,  men  of  pre-eminent  goodness  and  wisdom.  ...  It 
is  a  provision  in  the  moral  government  of  the  world,  to  hold 
out  constantly  to  mankind  both  the  example  of  virtue  for 
imitation  and  its  precepts  for  obedience ;  and  the  moral  con 
stitution  of  man  is  never  so  depraved  to  be  totally  insensible 
to  either."  The  inducement  to  a  nobler  life,  he  said,  "  comes 
to  all,  and  at  all  times,  and  with  most  persuasive  influence, 
in  the  beautiful  example  of  a  long  career  of  public  and 
private  virtue,  of  wisdom  never  surprised,  of  goodness  never 
intermitted,  of  benignity,  simplicity,  and  gentleness,  finally 
ending  in  that  hoary  head  which  '  is  a  crown  of  glory,  if 
it  be  found  in  the  way  of  righteousness.'  To  this  example 
all  men  of  all  descriptions  pay  voluntary  or  involuntary 
homage.  .  .  .  The  very  circumstance  of  its  duration  affects 
all  hearts  with  the  conviction  that  it  has  the  characters  of 
that  excellence  which  is  eternal,  and  it  is  thus  sanctified  while 
it  still  lives  and  is  seen  of  men.  When  death  has  set  his  seal 
upon  such  an  example,  the  universal  voice  proclaims  it  as 
one  of  the  appointed  sanctions  of  virtue;  and  if  great  public 
services  are  blended  with  it,  communities  of  men  come  as 
with  one  heart  to  pay  it  the  tribute  of  their  praise  and  to 
pass  it  to  succeeding  generations,  with  the  attestation  of 
their  personal  recognition  and  regard." 

441 


HORACE    BINNEY 

While  Mr.  Binney  would  have  been  the  last  to  claim 
that  these  words,  written  of  the  great  chief  justice,  could 
ever  be  appropriately  used  of  himself,  no  one  who  knew  his 
life  and  character  could  fail  to  see  their  applicability.  He 
did  not  indeed  occupy  any  such  position  before  the  nation 
and  the  world  as  did  Marshall,  but  within  his  own  sphere  and 
his  own  community  he  undoubtedly  won  the  first  place,  being 
practically  regarded  by  all  as  the  ideal  lawyer  and  the  ideal 
private  citizen. 

His  ultimately  unique  position  in  Philadelphia  was  no 
doubt  due  in  part  to  his  great  age.  He  was  the  visible  link 
which  bound  the  days  of  the  Centennial  to  those  of  the 
Revolution.  He  had  seen  and  known  Washington,  Hamil 
ton,  Adams,  and  the  other  leaders  under  whom  the  colonies 
had  become  a  nation.  He  had  striven  to  perpetuate  the 
Federalist  party  in  the  days  of  Madison,  he  had  fought 
against  the  ascendency  of  Jackson,  and  he  had  defeated 
Webster  in  legal  argument.  He  had  brought  his  acute  mind 
and  able  pen  to  the  aid  of  Lincoln,  and  to  him  Grant  had 
come  to  pay  the  respect  due  to  his  years  and  reputation.  But 
it  was  not  only  the  length  of  his  life  which  was  remarkable. 
During  the  seventy-five  years  since  he  had  come  to  man's 
estate  no  one  could  point  to  any  failure  on  his  part  to  respond 
to  the  call  of  duty,  to  any  good  cause  that  he  had  deserted, 
to  any  bad  cause  that  he  had  espoused,  or  to  any  act  in  which 
he  had  not  shown  absolute  fearlessness  as  well  as  absolute 
devotion  to  what  he  believed  to  be  (and  what  the  test  of 
time  usually  proved  to  be)  the  right  principle.  Partisan  or 
professional  opponents  might  criticise  him,  but  they  could 
never  impugn  his  motives,  his  sincerity,  or  his  courage.  It 
was  the  character  of  his  life,  and  not  merely  its  length, 
which  made  him,  as  Sir  John  Coleridge  truly  said,  "  the  great 
citizen  of  Philadelphia." 

442 


CHARACTERISTICS 

In  winning  his  position  as  a  leader  of  the  bar,  and  ulti 
mately  of  the  community,  Mr.  Binney's  greatest  strength 
lay  in  his  thoroughness  and  his  sincerity.  From  the  first  he 
had  the  confidence  of  the  bench,  and  (as  he  wrote,  in  review 
ing  his  career)  "  I  endeavoured  by  all  my  professional  as 
well  as  private  life  to  show  that  I  was  not  unworthy  of  it. 
I  may  say  to  my  children  that  I  never  knowingly  committed 
an  injustice  towards  a  client,  or  the  opposite  party.  I  never 
prosecuted  a  cause  that  I  thought  a  dishonest  one,  and  I  have 
washed  my  hands  of  more  than  one  that  I  discovered  to  be 
such  after  I  had  undertaken  it,  as  well  as  declined  many 
which  I  perceived  to  be  so  when  first  presented  to  me.  I 
always  regarded  it  as  criminal  to  neglect  the  necessary  prepa 
ration  for  my  causes;  and  I  believe  all  the  bar  would  say 
that  no  gentleman  of  my  day  came  generally  better  prepared 
for  his  trials,  or  less  disposed  to  put  them  off.  I  at  all  times 
disdained  to  practise  any  stratagem,  trick,  or  artifice  for  the 
purpose  of  gaining  an  advantage  over  my  adversary;  and 
unless  I  thought  him  unfair,  I  was  generally  willing  that 
he  should  see  all  my  cards  while  I  played  them.  I  can  truly 
say  that  I  am  not  conscious  of  having  lost  anything  by  this 
candour,  but,  on  the  contrary,  have  repeatedly  gained  by  it, 
If  my  client  was  at  any  time  suspected,  I  had  no  reason  to 
think  that  I  was  by  either  the  court  or  the  bar;  and  how 
many  balancing  cases,  in  the  course  of  thirty-five  years  prac 
tice,  this  sort  of  reputation  assisted,  I  need  not  say.  .  .  . 

"  I  rarely,  if  ever,  made  a  contract  for  a  fee  to  depend 
upon  the  successful  issue  of  the  cause,  and  I  never  in  a  single 
instance  stipulated  to  have  a  portion  of  the  thing  recovered, 
whether  lands,  houses,  or  anything  else.  My  clients  were  of 
a  description  which  rendered  this  mode  of  compensation  as 
unnecessary  as  it  would  have  been  disagreeable  to  me.  I  was 
content  to  leave  the  fee  to  them,  at  the  termination  of  the 

443 


HORACE    BINNEY 

suit,  and  I  never  had  a  word  of  controversy,  nor  am  I  aware 
that  I  ever  caused  the  least  discontent  in  regard  to  a  fee  in 
my  life.  How  much  of  the  unpopularity  of  the  profession 
has  arisen  from  the  practice  of  contingent  fees,  contracted 
for  in  country  practice,  I  need  not  say.  It  never  prevailed  to 
any  extent  in  the  city,  and  certainly  not  in  commercial  suits.'* 

In  view  of  the  above,  one  can  readily  imagine  what  Mr. 
Binney  would  have  thought  of  the  New  York  statute  which 
makes  the  fees  of  a  lawyer  retained  in  a  suit  a  lien  upon  any 
fund  recovered  therein  by  his  client,  or  of  the  attempt  to 
enact  a  similar  law  in  Pennsylvania. 

Many  anecdotes  are  told  in  illustration  of  Mr.  Binney's 
high  standard  in  professional  and  business  matters.  Once, 
when  an  impatient  litigant  pressed  him  to  insist  upon  the  trial 
of  a  cause  in  violation  of  the  courtesies  of  the  profession,  he 
was  seen  to  spring  from  his  chair,  and,  with  flaming  eyes, 
tell  his  client  that  if  he  were  dissatisfied  he  could  reclaim  his 
fee,  but  that  he  himself  was  not  the  man  to  take  advantage 
of  the  act  of  Providence,  by  which  the  opposing  counsel 
was  laid  on  a 'bed  of  sickness.  On  another  occasion,  in  the 
trial  of  an  action  on  a  promissory  note,  when  the  defence  of 
set-off  had  failed,  he  rose,  and,  facing  the  bench,  said,  in  a 
tone  of  withering  scorn,  "  My  client  commands  me  to  plead 
the  statute  of  limitations."  The  rebuke  was  not  lost  on  the 
wealthy  defendant,  who  personally  withdrew  the  plea;  but 
also,  it  is  said,  concluded  that  for  the  future  a  counsel  with 
so  keen  a  sense  of  honour  would  be  too  expensive  a  luxury. 

Mr.  Binney  had  what  is  undoubtedly  an  advantage  to  a 
lawyer, — a  commanding  presence, — and  perhaps  it  was  even 
a  greater  advantage  in  the  more  dignified  days  of  a  century 
ago  than  it  is  to-day.  When  in  his  prime  he  was  tall, 
well-proportioned,  and  erect,  his  face  strikingly  handsome, 
with  high,  broad  forehead,  firm  mouth,  and  well-set,  piercing 

444 


CHARACTERISTICS 

eyes.  He  was  a  good  horseman,  and  his  temperate  life  and 
love  of  the  open  air  not  only  kept  up  his  strength  but  pre 
served  his  features  unchanged  to  a  remarkable  degree.  At 
seventy-five  he  did  not  look  over  sixty,  and  to  the  last  the 
weight  of  his  many  years  bent  him  but  slightly,  while,  though 
time  silvered  his  hair,  his  eyes  retained  their  strength  of 
expression. 

Whatever  subject  came  before  him  was  examined  thor 
oughly,  and  his  ability  to  search  and  sift  the  most  complex 
questions,  until  he  had  mastered  all  their  details  and  bearings, 
was  only  equalled  by  his  capacity  of  imparting  his  own 
knowledge  in  the  most  convincing  way.  This  faculty  of  ex 
pression  seems  to  have  been  allied  to  his  taste  for  music,  the 
art  which  appealed  to  him  more  than  any  other.1  His  refined 
musical  sensibility,  aided  by  a  thorough  comprehension  of 
the  kindred  art  of  language,  guided,  as  it  were,  his  voice 
and  pen,  clothing  his  thoughts  in  words  as  harmonious  as 
they  were  appropriate  and  effective.  Quickness  of  percep 
tion,  ready  play  of  fancy  and  humour,  the  treasures  of  a 
well-stored  mind  always  at  his  command,  made  his  conversa 
tion  a  delight  to  all  within  the  circle  of  his  familiar  inter 
course,  while,  when  he  spoke  in  court  or  in  public,  his  strong, 
well-modulated  voice  and  grace  of  gesture  never  failed  to 
attract  his  audience,  nor  his  ready  flow  of  well-chosen  lan 
guage  to  hold  their  attention.  His  straightforward  nature, 
moreover,  gave  the  tone  to  all  his  words,  and  the  strength  of 
his  arguments  was  equalled  by  their  perfect  sincerity. 

His  love  of  literature  was  always  strong,  and  most 
marked  in  his  later  years,  when  his  comparative  leisure  en 
abled  him  to  freely  indulge  this  taste,  and  to  acquire  thereby 


iRe  once  wrote,  "In  my  own  family,  music  was  the  common  language  of 
every  member  of  it."     (Letter  to  Hon.  D.  A.  White,  February  19,  1855.) 


445 


HORACE    BINNEY 

a  cultivation  usually  confined  to  those  who  have  made  letters 
a  profession.  While  his  reading  covered  a  very  broad  field, 
he  read  less  for  mere  recreation  than  to  furnish  his  mind 
with  food  for  thought.  For  this  reason  he  attached  great 
value  to  indexes,  and  came,  as  he  once  wrote  Dr.  Allibone, 
"  to  regard  a  good  book  as  curtailed  of  half  its  value,  if  it 
has  not  a  pretty  full  index.  It  is  almost  impossible,  without 
such  a  guide,  to  reproduce  on  demand  the  most  striking 
thoughts  or  facts  the  book  may  contain,  whether  for  citation 
or  further  consideration.  If  I  had  my  own  way  with  a  modi 
fication  of  the  copyright  law,  I  think  I  would  make  the 
duration  of  the  privilege  depend  materially  on  its  having 
such  a  directory.  One  may  recollect  generally  that  certain 
thoughts  or  facts  are  to  be  found  in  a  certain  book ;  but  with 
out  a  good  index  such  a  recollection  may  hardly  be  more 
available  than  that  of  the  cabin-boy  who  knew  where  the 
ship's  teakettle  was,  because  he  saw  it  fall  overboard.  In 
truth,  a  very  large  part  of  every  man's  reading  falls  over 
board;  and  unless  he  has  good  indexes,  he  will  never  find  it 
again,  how  much  soever  he  may  look  for  it. 

"  I  have  three  books  in  my  library  which  I  value  more 
than  any  other  there,  except  the  very  books  of  which  they 
are  a  verbal  index.  Cruden's  Concordance  of  the  Bible, 
Mrs.  Cowden  Clarke's  Concordance  of  Shakespeare,  and 
Prendergast's  Concordance  of  Milton.  We  may  not  want 
such  frequent  soundings  on  the  charts  of  most  books;  but 
the  fuller  they  are  the  more  time  they  save,  and  the  more 
accurately  they  enable  the  reader  to  explore  and  retain  in 
memory  the  depths  of  the  best  authors  for  his  present  occa 


sions." 


Mr.  Binney's  resistance,  except  in  a  few  brief  instances, 
to  all  calls  to  public  life,  was  not  due  to  any  selfish  shirking 
of  a  citizen's  obligations,  and  still  less  to  any  lack  of  deep 

446 


A   LIFE    OF    PROTEST 

patriotism.  Rightly  or  wrongly,  he  firmly  believed  himself 
unfitted  by  nature  for  the  life  of  a  public  man,  and  certainly 
his  independent  and  masterful  spirit  was  ill  disposed  to  the 
concessions  and  compromises  by  which  public  measures  are 
usually  carried,  but  no  man  could  have  been  more  keenly  and 
sensitively  patriotic.  Probably  the  very  sensitiveness  of  his 
patriotism  helped  to  make  public  life  repugnant  to  him,  for 
it  is  certain  that  the  spectacle  daily  before  him  during  his 
term  in  Congress — the  motives  and  methods  of  those  who 
directed  the  affairs  of  the  government — gave  him  deep  and 
real  pain.  His  love  of  his  country  and  his  concern  for  her 
honour  were  so  intense  that  the  highest  standards  of  adminis 
tration  could  alone  satisfy  him;  and  believing,  as  he  did, 
that  the  prevailing  standards  were  very  low,  and  that  he  and 
the  few  men  who  thought  with  him  were  powerless  to  raise 
them,  he  felt  that  public  life  would  be  for  him  a  perfectly 
useless  martyrdom,  which  he  was  not  called  upon  to  undergo. 

Those,  indeed,  who  believe  in  swimming  with  the  tide, 
and  denounce  as  pessimism  all  criticism  of  prevailing  con 
ditions  and  tendencies,  will  see  no  commendation  in  what  was 
said  of  Mr.  Binney  by  a  friend, — that  "  his  greatest  eminence 
is  in  the  protest  which  his  life  has  been  against  all  about  him." 
To  those,  however,  who  hold  that  the  capacity  to  form  high 
ideals  of  government,  and  the  power  to  understand  political 
conditions  and  tendencies,  are  talents  which  the  possessor  is 
not  justified  in  burying  merely  because  the  exercise  of  them 
is  unpopular,  a  life  of  protest  is  never  fruitless  when  the 
protest  is  in  itself  proper.  Its  teachings  may  be  disregarded 
by  the  multitude,  but  they  will  always  be  treasured  in  the 
hearts  of  a  few,  to  bear  fruit  in  more  favourable  days. 

Though  a  believer  in  party  organization  within  proper 
limits,  and  an  avowed  member  of  the  Federal  party  as  long 
as  its  organization  existed,  Mr.  Binney,  for  the  last  sixty 

447 


HORACE    BINNEY 

years  of  his  life,  was  simply  what  would  now  be  called  a 
Mugwump,  a  man  who  could  not  conscientiously  adopt  all 
the  principles  of  any  one  party,  and  hence,  while  supporting 
the  one  with  which  he  was  most  in  accord,  holding  aloof  from 
actual  membership  in  any.  In  fact,  this  independence  was 
so  thoroughly  a  part  of  his  character  that  if  the  Federal  party 
had,  like  the  Democratic  party  in  1896,  kept  its  name  and 
organization  while  changing  its  principles,  he  would  have 
withdrawn  from  it,  and  it  would  have  had  no  more  hold  upon 
him  than  had  any  of  its  actual  successors.  This  indepen 
dence  was  the  direct  and  necessary  result  of  his  conscientious 
ness.  He  felt  himself  to  be  morally  responsible  for  all  his 
acts,  and  that  the  responsibility  could  not  be  evaded  by 
attempting  to  put  it  off  upon  a  party  organization.  The 
argument  that 

The  side  of  our  country  must  oilers  be  took, 

An'  Presidunt  Polk,  you  know,  Tie  is  our  country. 

An'  the  angel  thet  writes  all  our  sins  in  a  book 
Puts  the  debit  to  him,  and  to  you  the  per  contry, 

never  appealed  to  him  in  the  slightest.  For  him  the  largest 
conceivable  majority  could  not  make  that  wise  or  right  which 
he  believed  to  be  foolish  or  wrong,  and  while  he  never  claimed 
infallibility  for  his  own  judgment  on  any  point,  he  never 
shirked  full  moral  responsibility  for  the  exercise  of  it. 

To  his  mind  the  subordination  of  the  individual  con 
science  to  the  will  of  the  majority  was  one  of  the  many  evil 
results  of  democracy.  "  By  far  its  worst  present  effect," 
he  wrote,  about  1840,  "  is  upon  the  integrity  of  young  men. 
They  become  hypocrites  through  their  ambition.  They  sell 
their  opinions  for  popularity.  They  profess  what  they  do 
not  believe.  The  first  of  all  qualities,  integrity,  is  the  lowest 
at  market,  and  the  lowest  of  all  qualities  is  most  cultivated, 

448 


VIEWS    ON    DEMOCRACY 

that  of  acquiring  a  mastery  over  the  prejudices  and  passions 
of  the  populace.  How  mean  must  a  young  man  be  who 
foregoes  the  inestimable  satisfaction  of  always  doing  and 
saying  what  he  believes  to  be  right,  to  get  power  by  fawning 
upon  and  flattering  the  men  who  are  the  very  lowest  in  the 
scale  of  personal  worth?  How  can  this  be  done,  without  cor 
rupting  to  the  very  core  the  youth  of  this  country?  And 
what  must  the  men  of  the  country  be,  when  such  is  the  uni 
versal  taint  of  the  young?" 

The  democracy  to  which  Mr.  Binney  was  so  strongly 
opposed  was  not  that  of  any  one  political  party.  He  under 
stood  democracy  to  mean  the  rule  of  a  numerical  majority, 
claiming  to  rule  simply  because  it  was  a  majority,  without 
any  regard  to  its  fitness  for  ruling,  or  to  whether  the  ends  it 
sought  were  right  or  wrong;  and  that  feature  of  democracy 
which  alarmed  him  most  was  the  tendency  to  change  wise 
laws  and  salutory  customs  to  meet  the  popular  whim  of  the 
day.  His  ideal  was 

A  land  of  settled  government, 
A  land  of  just  and  old  renown, 
Where  Freedom  slowly  broadens  down 

From  precedent  to  precedent ; 

and  democracy,  in  his  opinion,  was  wholly  subversive  of  such 
an  ideal.  "  I  have  long  thought,"  he  wrote,  early  in  1864, 
"  that  if  a  people  possess  the  frame,  the  freest  and  most 
durable  government  in  the  world  is  a  constitutional  mon 
archy,  with  adequate  representation  of  the  people,  and  a  scale 
of  society  so  graduated  and  so  established  as  to  prevent  con 
cussions  between  monarch  and  subjects,  or  sudden  mutations. 
But  we  have  not  the  frame,  nor  perhaps  will  at  any  time 
have  t£e  timber  to  make  it.  I  think  exactly  what  Hamilton 

OQ  449 


HORACE    BINNEY 

did,  that  if  our  Constitution  were  fairly  administered,  it 
gives  us  the  best  chance,  and  yet  it  is  only  a  chance." 

That  Mr.  Binney  was  opposed  to  what  he  considered 
democracy  did  not  mean,  however,  that  he  approved  of  abso 
lutism  in  any  form.  He  merely  believed  that  the  people 
were  as  capable  of  tyranny  as  any  autocrat,  and  that  the  need 
of  protecting  the  rights  of  the  citizen  by  law  was  the  same 
under  a  popular  government  as  under  any  other.  To  secure 
such  protection  there  should  be,  he  held,  a  government  of 
law,  deriving  its  authority  from  the  people,  and  in  which  the 
people  should  be  fully  represented,  but  a  government  admin 
istered  mainly  by  men  who  were  appointed,  not  elected,  and 
who  held  office  during  good  behaviour  and  not  for  any  fixed 
term  nor  at  the  pleasure  of  the  appointing  power. 

His  opposition  to  democracy  was  based  on  a  sincere 
belief  that  it  was  hostile  to  liberty.  Such  a  belief  may  sur 
prise  those  who  have  grown  up  in  an  atmosphere  of  de 
mocracy  (or  what  passes  as  such),  but  it  cannot  be  waved 
aside  as  wholly  preposterous.  Time  has  shown  that  there  is 
a  very  large  number  of  voters  who,  from  motives  of  personal 
gain,  direct  or  indirect,  prefer  to  surrender  their  freedom  of 
election  and  to  vote  as  their  party  bosses  dictate.  Under 
the  complicated  nominating  system  everywhere  prevalent  in 
this  country,  and  under  the  defective  ballot  system  in  vogue 
in  most  States,  it  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  number  of 
such  voters  precisely,  but  it  is  undoubtedly  very  large.  Time 
has  also  shown  that,  with  the  perfection  of  party  machinery, 
the  party  boss,  even  without  holding  office,  can  be  a  very 
thorough  autocrat.  That  bossism  and  party  serfdom  are 
inimical  to  liberty  is  indisputable,  and  whether  they  are  the 
natural  fruits  of  democracy  or  a  wholly  parasitic  growth, 
their  connection  with  it  is  certainly  very  close. 

Mr.  Binney's  opposition  to  the  Democratic  party  was 

450 


VIEWS    ON   DEMOCRACY 

due  to  its  having  made  democracy  its  fundamental  principle 
from  the  start,  but  he  was  well  aware  that  after  the  passing 
of  Federalism,  the  democratic  spirit  affected  all  political 
parties.  Writing  about  1840,  he  said,  "  The  Whigs  are  at 
this  day  more  democratic  in  their  devices  and  principles  than 
the  Democrats  were  in  the  days  of  Jefferson.  There  are  few 
or  no  sacrifices  of  constitutional  principle  that  the  Whigs  will 
not  make  to  gain  power,  as  readily  as  the  Democrats.  Their 
very  name  is  Democratic  Whigs;  that  is  to  say,  they  have 
entered  into  full  partnership  with  those  who  trade  upon  the 
principle  that  the  people  are  all  in  all,  that  their  voice  is  vox 
Dei,  that  the  masses  are  always  right,  and  that  nothing  else 
is  fundamental  in  government  but  this.  What  the  Whig 
affix  means,  I  think  it  difficult  to  say.  It  is  certainly  nothing 
more  than  a  badge  of  preference  for  some  matter  of  admin 
istration  wholly  independent  of  constitutional  principle,  and 
varying  consequently  from  day  to  day.  To-day  it  is  tariff; 
the  next  day,  internal  improvements;  the  day  after,  some 
thing  else;  but  the  judiciary  is  not  a  Whig  question,  the 
qualification  of  suffrage  is  not  a  Whig  question,  the  restraint 
upon  naturalization  is  not  a  Whig  question.  The  only  ques 
tion  is  how  to  obtain  most  of  the  sweet  voices  and  emoluments 
of  government,  and  this  is  as  much  a  Whig  object  as  a 
Democrat  object,  and  there  is  no  obvious  or  characteristic 
difference  in  the  nature  of  their  respective  bids." 

After  the  attempt  to  destroy  the  Union  had  aroused  a 
revulsion  of  feeling  in  favour  of  national  sovereignty  as 
opposed  to  State  rights,  Mr.  Binney  undoubtedly  became 
more  hopeful  of  the  country's  future,  believing  that  if  the 
influences  of  slavery  were  exhausted,  the  Constitution  would 
have  a  better  chance  than  ever  before  of  furnishing  that 
stable  government  which  its  framers  had  planned.  Unfor 
tunately  the  bright  prospect  was  somewhat  dimmed  by  the 

451 


HORACE    BINNEY 

effects  of  the  spoils  system,  then  running  its  course  un 
checked  in  all  departments  of  the  government,  and  present 
ing,  in  its  inevitable  consequences  of  corruption  and  misrule, 
a  spectacle  most  painful  for  any  patriot  to  contemplate.  No 
indication  of  reform  being  then  in  sight,  he  could  simply 
hope  that  this  monstrous  evil  would  in  time  be  dealt  with,  as 
other  evils  had  been  dealt  with  in  the  past. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  dwell  upon  the  religious  side  of  Mr. 
Binney's  character,  nor  upon  the  warm  and  loving  heart  which 
coexisted  with  his  somewhat  reserved  bearing.  The  fore 
going  pages  indicate  what  manner  of  man  he  was  in  these 
respects.  In  contact  with  men  of  lower  standards  than  he 
approved,  his  sterner  side  often  asserted  itself;  but  as  the 
retirement  of  his  later  years  protected  him  more  and  more 
from  such  contact,  the  occasions  for  sternness  became  less 
and  less,  and  his  innate  kindliness  was  rarely,  if  ever,  ob 
scured.  As  a  friend 2  said  of  him,  "  It  was  also  in  the  art  of 
growing  old  that  Mr.  Binney's  example  was  full  of  teach 
ing;  his  presence  had  at  once  a  charm  and  a  majesty  which 
were  due  to  the  high  thoughts  which  were  his  habitual  com 
panions.  As  one  entered  his  quiet  study  or  library  his  gra 
cious  courtesy  showed  how  fruitful,  in  a  true  sense,  his  rule 
of  life  had  been  to  him, — that  early  acquired  '  art  or  faculty 
of  study.'  With  him  intellectual  growth  was  but  another 
name  for  moral.  It  is  good  to  think  of  that  aged  face  with 
its  fine  outline  preserved  to  the  last,  that  serene  and  be 
nignant  look." 

Mr.  Binney  was  a  man  of  varied  attainments,  whose 
every  capacity  was  trained  to  produce  the  best  results;  and 
to  produce  them  not  merely  for  the  benefit  of  those  to  whom 
he  primarily  devoted  his  life,  but  also,  in  so  far  as  the  times 


*  Mr.  Ellis  Yarnall,  in  a  lecture  delivered  at  Haverford  College,  January  7,  1902. 

452 


CHARACTERISTICS 

permitted,  for  the  benefit  of  his  city  and  his  nation.  "  In 
youth  a  scholar  of  fairest  promise,  yet  never  coveting  mere 
intellectual  gains  as  the  highest  acquisition,  achieving  at  the 
bar  the  foremost  rank  at  a  time  when  the  leaders  of  the 
Philadelphia  bar,  to  whom  he  stood  opposed,  would  have 
graced  Westminster  Hall  in  its  palmiest  days,  instructing 
the  bench  with  the  research,  the  discrimination,  the  per 
spicuity  of  his  arguments;  and,  while  devoted  to  his  pro 
fession,  never  relaxing  his  love  of  letters ;  a  proficient  in  the 
literatures  of  France  and  Spain,  delighting  in  history  and 
poetry,  a  close  student  of  theology,  he  was  much  more  than 
lawyer,  much  more  than  scholar.  Always,  with  one  brief 
exception,  declining  political  office,  indifferent  to  the  honours 
which  only  waited  his  acceptance,  he  furnished  a  crowning 
proof  of  his  eager  interest  in  political  issues  and  his  un 
flagging  zeal  for  the  public  welfare  when,  at  the  age  of  four 
score,  he  issued  from  his  well-earned  retirement  to  uphold 
the  pillars  of  the  state ;  and  in  the  unflinching  courage  with 
which  he  more  than  once  faced  and  conquered  a  perverted 
public  sentiment,  he  merited  the  tribute  paid  by  the  greatest 
Athenian  historian  to  the  greatest  Athenian  statesman,  that 
6  powerful  from  dignity  of  character  as  well  as  from  wisdom, 
and  conspicuously  above  the  least  tinge  of  corruption,  he  held 
back  the  people  with  a  free  hand,  and  was  their  real  leader 
instead  of  being  lead  by  them.'  Such  is  the  sway  of  wisdom, 
of  courage,  of  unsullied  integrity."  3 

3  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Oration  at  Cambridge,  June  29,  1876,  by  the  Rev.  J.  Lewis 
Diman,  Professor  of  History  in  Brown  University. 


453 


INDEX 


Aberdeen,  Lord,  152,  155 
Abinger,  Lord,  148 
Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  418 
Adams,  President,  52;   death,  82 
Adams,  J.  Q.,  President,  92,  124,  127, 

131,  433 

Alexander,  Sir  William,  151,  15T 
Alienigenae  of  the  United  States,  267 
Allibone,  Dr.  S.  A.,  Letters  to,  410,  412, 

421,  422,  424,  426 
Allison,  Burgess,  10 
American  Philosophical  Society,  65 
Anti-Catholic  riots,  235 
Apprentices'  Library,  75 
Ashburton,  Lord,  151 

Baldwin,  Mr.  Justice,  94 

Banks,  "Conversation,"  151 

Bar  of  Philadelphia,  leaders  in  1800, 
38;  its  debt  to  Buonaparte,  60; 
"  Leaders  of  the  Old  Bar,"  282 

Bassano,  Duke  of,  166 

Berryer,  Antoine  Pierre,  167 

Biddle,  Nicholas,  118,  207 

Binney  ancestry,  1 

Binney,  Dr.  Barnabas,  2;    death,  10 

Binney,  Elizabeth  (Cox),  marriage  to 
Horace  Binney,  48;  visit  to  New 
England,  270;  illness  of,  282;  death, 
295 

Binney,  Esther  (Mrs.  J.  I.  Clark  Hare), 
3;  tour  in  Europe,  136 

Binney,  Horace,  birth,  2;  early  years, 
3-9;  walks  in  Federal  procession,  10; 
at  school  in  Bordentown,  10-15;  re 
turns  to  Philadelphia,  15;  goes  to 
Watertown,  16;  in  Menotomy,  21; 

455 


at  Harvard  College,  22-28;  studies 
law,  29-37;  admitted  to  bar,  37;  ac 
quaintance  with  Gilbert  Stuart,  42; 
other  friends,  44;  meets  Humboldt, 
46;  declines  Master's  Oration,  47; 
marriage,  48;  trustee  of  University 
of  Pennsylvania,  49;  political  views, 
49-54;  in  Pennsylvania  Legislature, 
54-56;  reporter  for  Supreme  Court 
of  Pennsylvania,  57;  active  practice 
begins,  59;  director  of  United  States 
Bank,  61;  visits  Judge  Washington 
at  Mount  Vernon,  63;  unsuccessful 
effort  to  recharter  United  States 
Bank,  64;  president  of  Common 
Council,  65;  baptized  and  confirmed, 
66;  attends  Federal  convention  of 
1812,  67;  defence  of  Pryor,  68; 
views  on  a  lawyer's  life,  70;  in  Se 
lect  Council,  72;  views  on  American 
public  life,  73;  buys  summer  resi 
dence  in  Burlington,  75;  correspond 
ence  with  his  son  at  college,  76-80; 
visits  Niagara  Falls,  80;  views  on 
slavery,  82;  on  Adams  and  Jefferson, 
82;  counsel  in  Harris  vs.  Lewis,  84; 
receives  degree  of  LL.D.,  86;  writes 
memorial  against  tariff,  87;  urged 
for  appointment  as  Chief  Justice  of 
Pennsylvania,  89;  eulogium  on  Tilgh- 
man,  91;  urged  for  appointment  to 
United  States  Supreme  Court,  94; 
declines  position  on  Supreme  Court 
bench  of  Pennsylvania,  95;  contem 
plates  retirement,  96;  election  to 
Congress,  97-100;  amicus  curies  in 
Girard  vs.  Philadelphia,  101;  in 


INDEX 


Washington,  105;  speech  on  removal 
of  deposits,  107;  dines  with  President 
Jackson,  110;  dislike  of  public  life, 
112;  writes  minority  report  on  re 
moval  of  deposits,  116;  surprise  at 
course  of  bank,  118;  Sunday  speech 
at  Baltimore,  120;  speech  on 
Letcher's  case,  122;  on  coinage,  123; 
on  deposit  bill,  128;  on  relations  with 
France,  130;  eulogy  on  Marshall, 
131;  resigns  as  trustee  of  Univer 
sity  of  Pennsylvania,  134;  goes  to 
Europe,  136;  in  London,  141;  in 
Paris,  165;  goes  to  Switzerland,  174; 
to  Italy,  176;  in  Rome,  183;  musical 
experiences,  196;  returns  to  England, 
198;  to  Philadelphia,  201;  opposes 
changes  in  Constitution  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  203;  refuses  payment  of  city 
loan  in  depreciated  notes,  208;  de 
clines  appointment  as  district  judge, 
213;  retained  in  Girard  Will  case, 
216;  argues  case,  220;  declines  sug 
gestion  of  appointment  to  United 
States  Supreme  Court,  229;  urges 
suppression  of  anti-Catholic  riots, 
236;  drafts  address  to  governor,  240; 
drafts  police  and  riot  act,  241;  es 
pouses  cause  of  Bishop  Onderdonk, 
242;  opposes  city's  subscription  to 
Pennsylvania  Railroad  stock,  244; 
letter  in  regard  to  anti-gas  petition, 
250;  vindication,  252;  retires  from 
all  practice,  259;  address  at  Contri- 
butionship  centenary,  262;  address 
on  death  of  John  Sergeant,  265; 
essay  on  Alienigenae,  267;  supports 
consolidation,  268;  revisits  Menot- 
omy  and  Watertown,  270;  visits 
Hull,  275;  pamphlets  on  Bishop  On- 
derdonk's  case,  280;  sketch  of  Judge 
Washington,  282;  "Leaders  of  the 
Old  Bar,"  282;  writes  on  Washing 
ton's  Farewell  Address,  285;  reads 
Farewell  Address  before  Councils, 
299;  views  on  the  secession  move 


ment,  311-324;  reply  to  Lincoln's 
call  for  troops,  326;  views  on  the 
perpetuity  of  the  Union,  327-333; 
Habeas  Corpus  pamphlet,  342,  346; 
second  pamphlet,  354;  views  on  sus 
pension  act,  356;  letter  to  the  Union 
League,  370;  third  Habeas  Corpus 
pamphlet,  388,  393;  death  of  his  wife, 
395;  death  of  oldest  son,  412;  sup 
ports  Democratic  city  candidates, 
427;  appearance  and  conversation  in 
his  last  year,  429-437;  death,  437; 
meeting  of  Philadelphia  bar,  437; 
eulogium  on,  439;  characteristics, 
441-453 

Binney,  Horace,  Jr.,  birth,  66;  enters 
Yale  College,  76;  correspondence 
with,  76;  letters  to,  79,  80,  82,  85, 
105,  110,  112,  113,  115,  116,  118,  119, 
120,  121,  122,  123,  126,  127-130,  250, 
269;  opposes  Pennsylvania  Railroad 
subscription,  248;  in  Europe,  269; 
death,  412 

Binney,  Horace,  3d,  373,  380 

Binney,  John,  deacon  at  Hull,  1,  275, 
279 

Binney,  John,  22 

Binney,  Mary  (Woodrow),  marriage, 
2;  characteristics,  4;  widowhood,  10; 
marries  Dr.  Marshall  Spring,  15;  re 
moves  to  Watertown,  16;  death,  22 

Binney,  Mary  (Mrs.  John  Cadwalader), 
birth,  66 ;  visit  to  Niagara,  80 ;  death, 
96 

Binney,  Susan  (Mrs.  John  B.  Wallace), 
in  Philadelphia,  31,  32;  death,  258 

Binney,  Susan,  419,  421 

Binney,  William,  271-279 

Brackenridge,  Mr.  Justice,  38,  40 

Bronson,  Enos,  45 

Brown,  Mrs.  Nicholas  (Avis  Binney),  2$ 

Brown,  Henry  Armitt;  visits  to  Horace 
Binney,  429-437 

Buchanan,  President,  course  of,  311, 
312 

Bunsen,  Baron,  188 


456 


INDEX 


Calhoun,  John  C.,  views  on  slavery,  125, 
313 

Campbell,  Lord,  145,  147,  149 

Carrington  vs.  Merchants'  Insurance 
Company,  115 

Chase,  Mr.  Justice,  42 

Chauncey,  Charles,  30,  45,  54,  85,  94, 
135,  377;  death,  258 

Chauncey,  Elihu,  45 

Cincinnati,  Society  of  the,  47,  49 

Clay,  Henry,  opposes  recharter  of 
United  States  Bank,  64 

Coinage  Law  of  1824,  123 

Coleridge,  Sir,  J.  T.,  147,  259,  284,  292; 
memoir  of  Keble,  406;  letters  to,  293, 
301,  303,  308,  320,  329,  339,  343,  349, 
362,  374,  384,  391,  395,  398,  400,  401, 
404,  406,  407,  413,  415,  419,  424 

Commonwealth  vs.  Eberle,  74 

Conard  vs.  Atlantic  Insurance  Com 
pany,  92 

Contributionship,  the  Philadelphia,  262 

Cooper,  J.  Fenimore,  80 

Cope,  Thomas  P.,  216 

Cox,  Colonel  John,  48 

Coxe,  President  Judge,  41 

Cuba,  movement  to  purchase,  269 

Delaware  Breakwater,  movement  for, 
81 

Democracy,  Horace  Binney's  views  on, 
298,  329,  380,  448 

Denman,  Lord,  147,  149 

D'Israeli,  Benjamin  (Lord  Beacons- 
field),  151 

Dred  Scott  case,  296,  298,  369 

Elections,  fraud  at,  406 
England,  society  in,  162 
Everett,  Edward,  82 

Farrar,  Samuel,  24,  25 

Federal  party,  Horace  Binney's  views 

of,  50;    Convention  of  1812,  67 
Fisher,  Samuel  W.,  59 
Fisk,  Rev.  Mr.,  at  Menotomy,  21,  27 


Fitch's  steamboat,  14 

France,  relations  with,  in  1835,  126, 
128;  militarism  in,  165;  legal  pro 
cedure  in,  167;  Bonapartist  senti 
ment  in,  172 

Franklin,  Sir  John,  152 

General  Theological  Seminary,  83 

Gibson,  John  B.,  appointed  Chief  Jus 
tice  of  Pennsylvania,  90;  peculiari 
ties  of,  93,  101 

Gibson  vs.  Philadelphia  Insurance  Com 
pany,  59 

Girard,  Stephen,  214 

Girard  vs.  Philadelphia,  101 

Girard  Will  case,  215-233 

Godshall  vs.  Marian,  59 

Grant,  ^President,  election  of,  404; 
re-election  of,  420 

Habeas  Corpus,  suspension  of  privilege 
of  writ,  333,  334,  341;  Horace  Bin 
ney's  first  pamphlet  on,  342,  346-353; 
replies  to,  353;  second  pamphlet  on, 
354;  Act  of  Congress  as  to,  356,  388; 
third  pamphlet  on,  389,  393 

Hamilton,  General  Alexander,  15; 
share  in  Washington's  Farewell  Ad 
dress,  287;  Horace  Binney's  opinion 
of,  50,  297,  301,  305,  379,  384 

Hamilton,  John  C.,  285;  letters  to,  295, 
297,  300,  305,  306,  312,  323,  336,  345, 
357,  361,  378,  380,  384,  390,  406,  422, 
428 

Hamilton,  General  Schuyler,  328 

Hare,  Robert,  45 

Harper,  James,  100 

Harris  vs.  Lewis,  84 

Horticultural  Society,  86 

Hull,  Commodore  Isaac,  127 

Hull,  General  William,  68 

Humboldt,  F.  H.  Alexander  von,  in 
Philadelphia,  46 

Ingersoll,  Jared,  Horace  Binney  enters 
his  office,  29;  counsel  in  various  cases, 
49,  59,  74 


451 


INDEX 


Ingersoll  vs.  Sergeant,  134 
Italy,  quarantine  in,  176-182;   brigand 
age  in,  182 

Jackson,  Dr.  David,  Horace  Binney's 
guardian,  29 

Jackson,  President,  re-election  opposed, 
98;  re-elected,  100;  removal  of  de 
posits,  103;  courtesy  to  Mr.  Binney, 
110 

Jefferson,  President,  50,  52;  death,  82; 
likeness  of,  196;  Horace  Binney's 
opinion  of,  289,  290 

Jenks,  William,  24 

Johnson,  President,  policy  of,  399,  400, 
402 

Jones,  Walter,  counsel  in  Girard  Will 
case,  215,  220 

Judicial  tenure,  abandonment  of,  dur 
ing  good  behaviour,  in  Pennsylvania, 
203,  283;  election  of  judges,  260,  436 

King,  Rufus,  67 

King  vs.  Delaware  Insurance  Company, 

65 
Kirkland,  Dr.  John  T.,  47 

Ladd,  William,  24,  25 

Lancaster  vs.  Dolan,  93 

Lansdowne,  Marquis  of,  146,  152 

Laussat  vs.  Lippincott,  75 

Law  Association  of  Philadelphia,  47, 
264 

Law  Library  Association  of  Philadel 
phia,  47 

Leslie,  C.  R.,  158 

Lessee  of  Livingston  vs.  Moore,  101 

Letcher  vs.  Moore,  contested  election, 
122 

Lewis,  William,  38,  49;  counsel  for 
Fries,  42 

Lieber,  Dr.  Francis,  letters  to,  296,  298, 
311,  313,  328,  334,  337,  342,  353,  355, 
359,  365,  366,  371,  373,  377,  378,  382, 
387,  393 


Lincoln,  President,  election  of,  309;  in 
auguration  of,  320;  call  for  troops, 
325;  response  to,  326;  emancipation 
proclamation  of,  362,  365;  assassina 
tion  of,  390 

Littledale,  Sir  Joseph,  147 

Livingston,  Mr.  Justice,  63 

Long,  Major  S.  H.,  80 

Louis  Philippe,  attack  of  Alibeau  on, 
157;  conspiracies  against,  173 

Lyle  vs.  Richards,  75 

McCall,  Peter,  236 

McDuffie,  George,  moves  amendment  to 

motion   on   removal   of   deposits,   106 
McKean,  Governor  Thomas,  55,  56 
Magaw,  Rev.  Dr.,  2 
Magniac  vs.  Thompson,  101 
Marshall,  Chief  Justice,  35;    eulogy  on, 

131;    opinion  on  Baptist  Association 

case,  217 

Meredith,  William  M.,  216,  237 
Miranda,  General  Francisco,  46 
Monroe,  President,  171 
Munns  vs.  Dupont,  65 
Murphy  vs.  Hubert,  review  of,  257 

Negro  Suffrage,  Horace  Binney's  views 

on,  382,  398 
Nicholl,  Sir  John,  157 

Ogden,  David  B.,  63 

Ohio  boundary,  128 

Onderdonk,  Rt.  Rev.  H.  U.,  242,  280 

Orange,  Prince  of,  152,  155 

Palmerston,  Lord,  145 

Parke,  Sir  James,  148 

Parsons,  Theophilus,  defends  Claflin,  28 

Party  spirit,  Horace  Binney's  views  on5 

371,  376,  447 

Patterson,  Sir  John,  147,  310,  416 
Pemberton,   Thomas,   151 
Pennsylvania     Railroad     Company    of 

1823,  76 


458 


INDEX 


Pennsylvania  Railroad,  movement  to 
construct,  243;  city's  subscription  to 
stock  of,  244 

Perry  vs.  Crammond,  48 

Philadelphia,  attempt  to  pay  loan  in 
bank-notes,  208;  riots  in,  235;  sub 
scription  to  Pennsylvania  Railroad 
stock,  244;  consolidation,  268;  feel 
ing  in  regard  to  secession,  325;  mis- 
government  in,  427 

Pichon,  Baron,  171 

Pickering,  John,  at  Harvard,  25;  cor 
respondence  with,  37,  73;  provost- 
ship  offered  to,  135;  Judge  White's 
eulogy  on,  256 

Polk,  James  K.  (President),  105,  106, 
116 

Pozzo  di  Borgo,  Count,  159 

Price,  Eli  K.,  269 

Rawle,  William,  38,  39 

Richardson,  James,  24,  25 

Richardson,  Chief  Justice,  24,  25 

Riot  Act  of  1845,  241 

Rogers,  Samuel,  158 

Rome,    religion    in,    189;     carnival    in, 

191;    Horace  Binney's  impression  of, 

193 

Rosslyn,  Lord,  152 
Rush,  Dr.  Benjamin,  2,  46 
Russell,  Earl,  145,  229 

Sargent,  Lucius  M.,  212 
Sergeant,  John,  30,  45,  85,  101,  112, 
134,  377;  counsel  in  Girard  Will  case, 
215,  216,  226;  favours  Pennsylvania 
Railroad  subscription,  246;  death, 
264 

Sergeant,  Mr.  Justice,  253 
Shadwell,    Vice-Chancellor,    148 
Shippen,  Chief  Justice,  38 
Shulze,  Governor  John  A.,  89 
Silliman,  Professor   Benjamin,  44 
Slidell  and  Mason;    arrest  of,  344,  345, 
346 


Smith,  Mr.  Justice  (Charles),  55 

Smith,  Mr.  Justice  (Thomas),  38 

Spring,  Dr.  Marshall,  marries  Mrs. 
Barnabas  Binney,  15;  affection  for 
his  step-children,  23;  advice  to  Hor 
ace  Binney,  28 

St.  Peter's  Church  endowment  fund, 
417 

Stearns,  Asahel,  25 

Story,  Mr.  Justice,  opinion  in  Baptist 
Association  case,  217;  sits  in  Girard 
Will  case,  227 

Stuart,  Gilbert,  42;  his  portrait  of 
Horace  Binney,  43 

Tariff  of  1824,  memorial  against,  87 
Taylor,  President,  232 
Thorwaldsen,  Albert  Bertel,  183 
Ticknor,  George,  80,  176 
Tilghman,  Edward,  28,  60,  76,  93 
Tilghman,    Chief    Justice,    38,    57,    58; 

death,  89;    eulogium  on,  i*i 
Tyler,  President,  213,  230 

Union  League  of  Philadelphia,  Horace 

Binney's  letter  to,  370 
United  States  vs.  Pryor,  68 
United  States  Bank  (First),  failure  to 

secure  new  charter,  64 
United  States  Bank  (Second),  veto  of 

charter,  97;   removal  of  deposits,  103; 

Horace     Binney's     speech    on,     107; 

committee  reports  on  116;   change  of 

policy,  118 
United   States    Bank  of   Pennsylvania, 

207 

United  States  Bank  vs.  De  Veaux,  62 
United  States  Bank  vs.  Donnelly,  117 

Vaux,  George,  45 

Wallace,  Horace  Binney,  266 
Wallace,  John  B.,  30,  31,  45,  54;    let 
ters  to,  56,  115,  125 
Warren,  Dr.  John  C.,  25       . 


459 


INDEX 


Washington,  Mr.  Justice,  31;  visits  to, 
62;  death,  94;  sketch  of,  289 

Washington,  President,  15;  Farewell 
Address  of,  285-291;  reading  the 
Address,  299 

Webster,  Daniel,  ovation  to,  in  Balti 
more,  120;  Horace  Binney's  opinion 
of,  124,  263;  counsel  in  Girard  Will 
case,  215,  226 

Wellington,  Duke  of,  146,  152 


White,  Hon.  Daniel  A.,  at  Harvard, 
24-26;  letters  to,  33,  35,  113,  211,  233, 
256,  263,  288,  290,  316;  death,  319 

Wirt,  Attorney-General,  93;   death,  115 

Wise,  Henry  A.,  229 

Wolf,  Governor  George,  95 

Woodbridge,  Mr.,  school-master  at  Med- 
ford,  18 

Yeates,  Mr.  Justice,  38 


THE  END 


460 


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